Amnesty International urges Belarus to halt execution of Viktar Paulau
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- Viktar Paulau. Credit: Investigative Committee of Belarus
Amnesty International has launched an urgent action calling on its members around the world to write to Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka. The activists are invited to ask the authorities of Belarus to halt the execution of Viktar Paulau.
The appeal also calls to “immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.”
Paulau is at risk of imminent execution, Amnesty International stresses, after his appeal was turned down by the Supreme Court on November 12.
Technically, the convict may be pardoned by the President’s clemency commission. However, the authority has not pardoned a single death row inmate since Belarus gained its independence in 1991.
Despite continuing dialogue between the international community and the Belarusian authorities on the establishment of a moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition, in 2019 Belarus has executed at least two men and sentenced three men to death. Belarus remains the only country in the whole of Europe and the former Soviet Union which still implements death sentences.
