News
Supreme Court confirms death sentence for Viktar Skrundzik
The Judicial Chamber on Criminal Case of the Supreme Court of Belarus has dismissed an appeal filed by death row prisoner Viktar Skrundzik. The convict will be executed, unless pardoned by Aliaksandr Lukashenka. Read more…
Death convicts brothers Kostseu pardoned
Illia Kostseu and Stanislau Kostseu, two brothers sentenced to death in January 2020, have been pardoned, according to their relatives. Read more…
Death penalty 2020: Despite Covid-19, some countries ruthlessly pursued death sentences and executions
While there was an overall trend of decline, some countries pursued or even increased the number of executions carried out, indicating a chilling disregard for human life at a time when the world’s attention focused on protecting people from a deadly virus. Read more…
Tamara Chikunova, known anti-death penalty campaigner, dies at 73
Tamara Chikunova, the world-renowned Uzbek activist of the global abolitionist movement, died in Italy on March 31, the Community of Sant'Egidio said. Read more…
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…
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