UN Human Rights Committee registers Siarhei Khmialeuski’s complaint
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- Siarhei Khmialeuski
On August 3, the UN Human Rights Committee has confirmed the registration of an individual communication submitted on behalf of Siarhei Khmialeuski, who was sentenced to death on February 15.
According to Andrei Paluda, coordinator of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty in Belarus”, the complaint was considered on July 17 and registered as No. 2792/2016 on the same day as the communication by another Belarusian death row prisoner, Henadz Yakavitski.
In response to the complaint, the Committee urges the Belarusian authorities to suspend the execution of Siarhei Khmialeuski while his case is pending before the Committee. The UN HRC also asks Belarus to report within six months on any information or observations in relation to both the admissibility and the merits of Khmialeuski’s complaint.
The Minsk Regional Court sentenced Siarhei Khmialeuski, 31, to death for the brutal murder of three people in November 2014. The death sentence was imposed after a review of the criminal case, in which Khmialeuski was sentenced to life imprisonment.
On May 6, the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence.
On May 20, Amnesty International launched an urgent action urging President Lukashenka to “halt all planned executions in Belarus and immediately commute the death sentence of Siarhei Khmialeuski and all others sentenced to death in Belarus.”
