News
PACE General Rapporteur condemns new death sentence in Belarus
Vladimir Vardanyan (Armenia, EPP/CD), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has condemned the handing down in Belarus of a death sentence on Viktar Skrundzik for the murder of two elderly people and an attempt to murder an elderly woman in January 2019. Read more…
Man re-sentenced to death after retrial in Sluck
At a court hearing held today in the city of Sluck, the Minsk Regional Court handed down a death verdict to Viktar Skrundzik on charges of killing two elderly persons and attempting to murder an 85-year-old woman in January 2019. Three other defendants in the trial were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Read more…
On World Day against the Death Penalty, EU and CoE call on Belarus to end executions
Today on the World and European Day Against the Death Penalty, the European Union and the Council of Europe reaffirm their opposition to the use of capital punishment in all circumstances and call for the universal abolition of the death penalty. We welcome the continued decline in the use of the death penalty, confirming the overall trend towards universal abolition. Read more…
FIDH asks Belarus to allow Viasna attend pardon hearing in death penalty case
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has written to the Belarusian authorities urging them to allow Valiantsin Stefanovich, Viasna human rights defender and FIDH vice-president, to attend the hearing of the petition for pardon filed with the presidential commission in the case of the death row prisoners Kostseu brothers. Read more…
Supreme Court quashes death sentence in double murder case
The Supreme Court has overturned a death sentence earlier handed down to Viktar Skrundzik, 29, on charges of involvement in the murder of two elderly people near the city of Sluck in January 2019. The case will sent for a re-trial at the Minsk Regional Court. Read more…
Amnesty International urges Belarus to stop execution of Kostseu brothers
On 22 May, the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the death sentences of young brothers Stanislau and Illia Kostseu, aged 19 and 21 respectively. They have appealed to President Lukashenka for clemency. The President has granted clemency only once since coming to power in 1994. If clemency is denied, Stanislau and Illia Kostseu will be executed imminently. Read more…
Supreme Court confirms death sentence for Kostseu brothers
The Supreme Court of Belarus has upheld today the double death sentence handed down to Stanislau and Illia Kostseu charged with murdering their former schoolteacher in April 2019. The death verdicts have become final. Read more…
Amnesty International: 657 people executed in 2019, Belarus kills at least 2
In 2019, global executions fell by 5%, hitting a 10-year low, Amnesty International said in its annual overview of the death penalty around the world. Read more…
Amnesty International calls on Belarus to commute death sentences of Kostseu brothers
Amnesty International has launched an urgent action in support of Stanislau and Illia Kostseu, death row prisoners in Belarus. It calls on its members worldwide to write to the authorities of Belarus urging them to commute the death sentences. Read more…
EU reacts to new death sentence in Belarus
"The death penalty violates the inalienable right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," the European Union said in a statement on another death sentence pronounced in Belarus. Read more…
Man sentenced to death in Sluck on double murder charge
Viktar Skrundzik, aged 29, has been sentenced to death by the Minsk Regional Court after a trial held in the town of Sluck. The man was found guilty of killing two elderly people in January 2019. Read more…
Amnesty International urges Belarus not to execute death row prisoner Viktar Serhel
Amnesty International has launched an urgent action in support of Viktar Serhel, death row prisoner who lost his appeal to the Supreme Court on January 31 and may be thus executed at any moment. Read more…
EU, CoE “reaffirm strong opposition” to death penalty after new sentences delivered in Belarus
The European Union reaffirms its strong opposition against the application of capital punishment in any circumstance, the EU External Action Service said in a statement following the two death sentences handed down in Belarus on January 10. Read more…
Two men sentenced to death in Čerykaŭ
Two men, Illia Kostseu and Stanislau Kostseu, have been sentenced to death at a visiting session of the Mahilioŭ Regional Court held today in the town of Čerykaŭ. Judge Mikhail Melnikau found the two brothers, aged 21 and 19, respectively, of killing their former school teacher and setting her house on fire to destroy the evidence. Read more…
EU, CoE, PACE call for moratorium in response to new execution in Belarus
The spokespersons of the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly have once again called on the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium on executions in Belarus. The statements were released after the news came of another execution in the continent’s last retentionist country. Read more…
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