News
Court sends two to death after retrial
The Minsk City Court has sentenced two persons to death after a retrial on January 20. Viachaslau Sukharka and Aliaksandr Zhylnikau were found guilty of murdering three people in December 2015. One more defendant in the case, Alina Shulhanava, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Read more…
Amnesty International: 2 men in Belarus at risk of imminent execution
The death sentences of Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoy were upheld by the Supreme Court of Belarus on 20 December 2017. The two men were convicted and sentenced to death by the Mahiliou Regional Court, in eastern Belarus, on 21 July 2017. In the likely event that their appeal for clemency is rejected by the President, both men will be at risk of imminent execution. Read more…
EU statement on two upheld death sentences in Belarus
Statement by the Spokesperson on two upheld death sentences in Belarus Read more…
Supreme Court confirms death verdicts for 2 men
The Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of Belarus has upheld the death sentences earlier handed down to Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoi, two of the four people involved in the so-called ‘black realtors’ case’. Read more…
Death Penalty in Europe and Central Asia: Close to the Finishing Line
On 11 December 1977 Amnesty International and participants of the International Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty issued the Stockholm Declaration which called on all governments to bring about the immediate and total abolition of the death penalty. At the time, only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty. Forty years on, that figures stands at 105. To mark this anniversary, Amnesty International looks through this newsletter at trends in Europe and Central Asia and takes a closer look at the use of the death penalty in Belarus, the last executioner in the region. Read more…
EU and CoE call for moratorium on executions in Belarus on World Day against Death Penalty
On the European and World Day against the Death Penalty, the Council of Europe and the European Union reaffirm their strong and unequivocal opposition to capital punishment in all circumstances and for all cases. The death penalty is incompatible with human dignity. It constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment, does not have any proven deterrent effect and allows judicial errors to become irreversible and fatal. Read more…
Death Penalty in Belarus: Secret Executions in the Middle of Europe
Minsk-Paris, 6 October 2017. Ahead of the International Day against the Death Penalty on the 10th of October, our organisations recall that executions continue to take place in the middle of Europe. Detained in conditions amounting to torture, in constant psychological anguish caused by the uncertainty of the timing of their execution, prisoners in Belarus are being killed in secrecy. Read more…
Viasna to join World Coalition against the Death Penalty
Joining forces with supporters of the global abolitionist movement is another step of the Belarusian human rights defenders towards ending the death penalty in the country. At the same time, Belarus is marked on the world map as a place where death sentences are often imposed on representatives of the most vulnerable groups. Read more…
Schedule of events within the Week against the Death Penalty
The traditional Week against the Death Penalty will be held in various parts of Belarus on October 5-10. “The death penalty is the past”. This is the key message of awareness-raising activities within the Week. Read more…
Belarus in focus at OSCE event on the death penalty
Amnesty International and FIDH continue to raise the issue of the death penalty at international fora, as another thematic event has been held within the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw. The side event involved human rights activists from Belarus, one of the two OSCE countries that still execute death convicts. Read more…
PACE: Abolition of death penalty in Belarus, simply a question of political will
Yves Cruchten (Luxembourg, SOC), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, and Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE), PACE rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, have denounced the two death sentences handed down by the Mogilev regional court in Belarus. Read more…
EU Criticizes Belarusian Death Sentences
The European Union on July 21 criticized the two latest death sentences handed down in Belarus, saying that they "violate the right to life." Read more…
Two new death verdicts handed down in Mahilioŭ
The Mahilioŭ Regional Court completed today the hearing of a headline-making case of ‘black estate agents’, sentencing two defendants, Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnou, to death and two more, Tatsiana Hershankova and Barys Kalesnikau, to lengthy prison terms. Read more…
Amnesty International: Aliaksei Mikhalenya at risk of imminent execution
On 30 June, the Supreme Court denied Aliaksei Mikhalenya’s appeal and upheld his death sentence. Aliaksei Mikhalenya was later transferred to the pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) #1 in Minsk where death row inmates are kept and death sentences are believed to be executed. He is at risk of imminent execution. Read more…
Death Sentence Upheld in Appeal in Supreme Court
On June 30, the Supreme Court of Belarus heard the appeal of Aliaksei Mikhalenia, sentenced to death in March 2017. Read more…
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