Supreme Court to consider appeal against repeated death sentence for Aliaksandr Hrunou
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- Aliaksandr Hrunou during the trial at the Homel Regional Court. Photo by tut.by.
The Judicial Board for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court is expected to hear on April 8 an appeal filed by Aliaksandr Hrunou, 25, who was repeatedly sentenced to death for the brutal murder of a woman.
Despite being found guilty of the murder again, the death convict disagrees to the verdict and is appealing it through a lawyer. Aliaksandr Hrunou believes that the court had to accept his confession and cooperation with the investigation as a mitigating circumstance, as is stated in the ruling of the Supreme Court’s Judicial Board for Criminal Cases.
On June 14, 2013, the Homel Regional Court chaired by Judge Siarhei Shamekhin sentenced Aliaksandr Hrunou to death for the murder of a student Natallia Emialianchykava. The defendant fully admitted his guilt.
On October 22, 2013, the Judicial Board for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court reversed the death verdict and sent the case to the same court for a new trial. Amnesty International welcomed the decision.
On December 24, 2013, the Homel Regional Court chaired by Judge Anatol Tozik once again sentenced Aliaksandr Hrunou to capital punishment. The convict then apologized to the victims’ mother.
In connection with the new death sentence Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, condemned the new death sentence and once again called on the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty.
Aliaksandr Hrunou plans to submit a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee. He has already signed a power of attorney in the name of his mother and a human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka, activist of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty in Belarus”, according to gomelspring.org.
Coordinator of the campaign Andrei Paluda says last week Aliaksandr Hrunou was transferred from Homel detention facility to prison No. 1 in Minsk.
