Application for a picket against the death penalty filed in Vitsebsk
The application was filed to the
Chyhunachny District Executive Committee of Vitsebsk by the human
rights defender Leanid Svetsik who intends to hold the picket to hold
a discussion with Vitsebskers concerning the ongoing use of the death
penalty in Belarus.
Leanid Svetsik said that
the application was filed with the district administration in
accordance with the manner of distribution of the places determined
for mass events. The human rights defender asks for permission to
hold his oicket on 19 October in the Park of Culture and Rest of
Railwaymen. The intended number of participants is ten people.
“My
picket is a step in the direction of a more extensive discussion of
the topic of the death penalty in our country”, says the Vitsebsk
human rights defender.
The discussion on this matter is
rather important to Vitsebsk. Many people here remember that two
Vitsebskers, Uladzislau Kavaliou and Dzmitry Kanavalau, were executed
on charges for the explosion in the Minsk metro on 11 April 2011. The
verdict of the Supreme Court, which sentenced the two boys to death,
was treated by the society quite ambiguously, and the shooting of the
convicts caused a great wave of public outrage.
