Death sentence passed in Sluck
In Sluck, the Minsk Regional Court in a visiting session considered a criminal case against the parents Aliaksandr and Anastasia Taratuta for the murder of their three-year-old child. On October 19, the judicial board found them guilty and sentenced Anastasia to 25 years in a high security colony and compulsory treatment for alcoholism, and Aliaksandr to death by firing squad. It was the punishment that prosecutor Tatsiana Hrakun had requested.
What happened?
According to the case materials, the accused, being drunk, on the basis of hostility towards their son, inflicted at least nine blows with their hands, feet, and a hard blunt object, of which at least seven were on the head, from which he died on the spot.
The actions of the Taratutas were qualified according to Paragraphs 2, 6, 15 of Part 2 of Article 139 (intentional unlawful deprivation of the life of another person (murder), a minor, a person in a helpless state, committed with extreme cruelty by a group of persons) and Part 2 of Article 154 (intentional infliction of pain and beatings of a minor) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.
It is known that the pre-trial detention center sent an appeal to the child services asking not to let Anastasia Taratuta adopt children.
At the trial, Anastasia and Aliaksandr pleaded guilty. The father stated that he did not intend to kill his son.
Only the effective part was announced at the trial, since part of the trial was held in closed session.
Torture and pressure on the accused
During one of the court sessions, it became known that the accused filed an application to initiate criminal proceedings against police officers for the use of physical violence and pressure against them. The initiation of a criminal case was rejected.
As Anastasia Taratuta's former cellmate told the human rights activists of Viasna, after being detained in the Sluсk department of the Investigative Committee, she was beaten with a live electric wire and demanded to confess.
According to Anastasia's cellmate, after Aliaksandr started beating the child, she contacted the police, but he was only fined. In 2023, she consulted with social service employees about a divorce, but they advised to "save the family."
Human rights activist: "Justice should prevail without murder which helps nothing"
Coordinator of the campaign Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty in Belarus Andrei Paluda commented on the death sentence handed down on October 19:
"The case of the torture and murder of a little boy by his parents caused a storm of emotions in society. And this is an absolutely understandable reaction. Such things should not happen in the civilized world. I am not saying that there should be no punishment for such things. Punishment should be mandatory, and it should be strict and inevitable. Justice should prevail. But it should do so without murder which helps nothing."
Up-to-date information on the state of the death penalty in Belarus can be tracked on the Telegram channel Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty in Belarus"
