Say NO to the death penalty in Belarus

URGENT ACTION

belarus must stop imminent execution

Amnesty International is deeply concerned that death row prisoner Eduard Lykau is at imminent risk of execution in Belarus.

Eduard Lykau was convicted and sentenced to death on 26 November 2011 by the Minsk Regional Court for five murders committed in 2002, 2004 and 2011. He was detained in September 2011 following the fifth murder in the village of Zhdanovichi, close to Minsk. Information regarding his death sentence was only released on 20 December 2011. According to official sources he was homeless and had already served several prison sentences for theft, hooliganism and non-payment of child support.

Following the recent reported execution of Alyaksandr Hrunou in early November, local activists have told Amnesty International that they believe Eduard Lykau is at greater risk of execution as death sentences are often implemented in quick succession and without prior notification.

Following a period of 24 months in which no executions took place, Belarus has executed three prisoners so far in 2014. Rygor Yuzepchuk and Pavel Selyun are believed to have both been executed in April this year.

Please write immediately in Belarusian, Russian or your own language calling on the authorities to:

Immediately commute the death sentence of Eduard Lykau to a term of imprisonment;

Immediately establish an official moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty in Belarus;

Ensure that full current information about the use of the death penalty in Belarus is publicly available and that family and lawyers are given full access to the prisoners and information about their cases.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 23 DECEMBER 2014 TO:

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President

Alyaksandr Lukashenka

Vul. Karla Marksa 38

220016

Minsk, Belarus

Fax: +375 17 226 06 10

+375 17 222 38 72

Email: contact@president.gov.by Salutation: Dear President

Prosecutor General

Alyaksandr Kaniuk

Vul. Internatsianalnaya 22

220050

Minsk, Belarus

Fax: +375 17 226 42 52 (Say "fax" clearly if voice answers)

Email: info@prokuratura.gov.by

Salutation: Dear Prosecutor General

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Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:

Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the first update of UA 6/14. Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR49/001/2014/en

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URGENT ACTION

BELARUS MUST STOP IMMINENT EXECUTION

ADditional Information

Following a period of 24 months in which no executions took place, Belarus has executed three prisoners so far in 2014. In doing so, Belarus remains the last executioner in the whole of Europe and Central Asia and has ignored not just its legal human rights obligations but also the clear regional and global trend towards abolition of the death penalty. Amnesty International reiterates its call for Belarus to introduce an immediate moratorium on executions and commute all existing death sentences as a first step towards abolition.

In Belarus, death sentences are implemented in strict secrecy and without giving adequate notice to the prisoners, their families or their legal representatives. Condemned prisoners are given no warning that they are about to be executed; instead they are taken out of their cells, told that their appeal for clemency has been turned down, and then forced to their knees and shot in the back of the head. Their families are only informed days or sometimes weeks after their relative has been executed. The Criminal Executive Code allows the authorities to refuse to return the bodies of those executed to their families or to even inform them of the location of the burial site. In October 2013, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus stated: “The way the death penalty is carried out in Belarus amounts to inhuman treatment.”