News
Authorities oppose UN’s consideration of communication by Zhuk’s mother
According to human rights activist Raman Kisliak, the Belarusian government appeals against the admissibility of communication filed by mother of death convict Andrei Zhuk, claiming that the facts mentioned are false, namely he allegedly failed to exhaust all domestic remedies. Read more…
Minsk not to abandon death penalty soon
Belarus will not be able to abandon the death penalty in the near future, says Barys Batura, chair of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly, and therefore the authorities are not so far ready to implement the requirements of the Council of Europe and declare a moratorium on capital punishment. Read more…
Amnesty International calls on Lukashenka to stop executions
The Amnesty International human rights organization calls on President Lukashenka to save two Belarusians from executions. Andrei Zhuk and Vasily Yuzepchuk are currently awaiting execution in Minsk. Their appeals have been turned down. Both men have applied for clemency to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka - but Amnesty International knows of only one case in which clemency was granted since President Lukashenka took office in 1994. Read more…
Hary Pahaniayla: ‘The state cannot be forced to commit murders itself’
Hary Pahaniayla, lawyer of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, expressed his view against the death penalty, in the framework of the campaign ‘Human Rights Activists against the Death Penalty in Belarus.’ Read more…
Human rights defenders pass petition to authorities
On the International Human Rights Day representatives of the Belarusian human rights community passed to the Presidential Administration a petition calling to abolish the death penalty as a kind of punishment that contradicts to the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution and international human rights treaties. Read more…
Valiantsin Stefanovich: ‘No referendum is needed for the abolition of the death penalty, the legislation needs to be amended instead’
‘Legally, no referendum is needed for the abolition of the death penalty,’ says human rights activist and Viasna’s lawyer Valiantsin Stefanovich, commenting President Lukashenka’s recent statement in an interview with the La Stampa newspaper. Lukashenka said that the use of the death penalty is based on the results of the 1996 referendum and that, ‘under the Constitution, only another referendum can reverse its results.’ Read more…
Poet Andrei Khadanovich: ‘The death penalty has always been a means of restraint and intimidation’
Andrei Khadanovich, famous Belarusian poet, translator and head of the Belarusian PEN-Center, has joined the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus. Read more…
Jean-Louis Laurens: ‘The abolition of the death penalty requires the political will of the country’s leaders’
‘Of course, the Special Guest status is very important, but its absence is not an obstacle to the cooperation between the Council of Europe and Belarus in various fields,’ said Jean-Louis Laurens, Council of Europe's Director General of Democracy and Political Affairs, during his visit to Minsk, six months after PACE named the abolition of or the declaration of a moratorium on the death penalty as the key condition for the restoration of the country’s Special Guest status in the Council of Europe. Read more…
Information campaign for abolition of death penalty to be carried out in Belarus, Lukashenka says
In his interview with the La Stampa Italian newspaper, President Lukashenka said an information campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus would be launched in the near future, the BELTA news agency reports. Read more…
Aleh Hulak: ‘The death penalty is a humiliation of people, the right, the present’
Aleh Hulak, head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, has joined the campaign against the death penalty in Belarus. ‘I believe that Belarus must abolish the death penalty. It is savage to allow the state to murder a human being in the XXI century. Read more…
Prosecutor General turns down Viasna's complaint
The Human Rights Center Viasna has recieved another reply to its complaint lodged with the Office of Prosecutor's General of Belarus concerning the forthcoming execution of the death sentences to Vasil Yuzepchuk and Andrei Zhuk. In an official reply, representative of the Prosecutor's Office Mrs. Haurylenka says that 'only the convict, his legal advisor, the victim, public defendant or their representatives can appeal the verdict... Since the applicants are not participants of the criminal process, the complaint is left unattended.' Read more…
Death convict Andrei Zhuk pleas for mercy
Andrei Zhuk, sentenced to death for alleged murder of two persons, has lodged a plea for mercy with President Lukashenka. This is his last and only chance. Belarusian human rights activists believe that Andrei Zhuk should be pardoned. ‘We, as human rights defenders, call upon the Belarusian authorities to display humanism. Andrei Zhuk’s family have also addressed the President with a plea for mercy. Albeit lacking any legal effect, we do hope their appeal will be taken into consideration by the authorities, too,’ said Viasna’s lawyer Valiantsin Stefanovich. Read more…
Famous film director Zanussi condemns death penalty
During his visit to the Listapad international film festival in Minsk, the world famous Polish film director Krzysztof Zanussi has commented on his view of the death penalty. ‘You know, in my country it was banned a long time ago. Pope John Paul II used to speak strongly, saying there was no justification for the death penalty in the modern world, though there perhaps used to be one before. Surely, from a human point of view, I am definitely opposed to it; it seems to me to be something absolutely unreal. Read more…
Russia’s Constitutional Court bans death penalty
The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has ruled to declare that the death penalty cannot be used even after the termination of the moratorium, the Interfax news agency reports. The moratorium on the death penalty expires on 1 January 2010, together with the introduction of the jury trial in Russia’s last region – Chechen Republic. After that there would be no formal obstacles for using the death penalty in Russia. However, the Constitutional Court stresses that the introduction of the jury trial in Russia does not allow for the use of the death penalty. Read more…
Belarusian authorities consider Yuzepchuk’s address to UN illegal
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has received from the state organs of Belarus explanations concerning the individual communication on behalf of the death convict Vasil Yuzepchuk. Read more…
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