Council of Republic justifies ban on issuing bodies of executed prisoners for burial
Volha Hrunova, mother of Aliaksandr Hrunou, who was executed on charges of murder, received first answers to her requests about the need to change legislation prohibiting relatives to bury the bodies of executed prisoners. Liliya Maroz, Chairperson of the Standing Committee for legislation and state construction of the National Assembly, says there are no contradictions of the national legislation with the country’s Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, according to gomelspring.org.
Agreeing in essence to the fact that according to the Belarusian legislation the body of the executed person is not given and the place of burial is not disclosed, the MP came to an unmotivated conclusion that this issue is not contrary to Article 25 of the Constitution and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (nobody shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman treatment).
Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court Valery Kalinkovich responded to the woman’s petition in just one sentence: “The Supreme Court sees no reason to introduce a proposal to the Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of the question raised.”
It is worth recalling that Volha Hrunova previously petitioned the President, both Houses of Parliament, the Supreme Court and the Government asking them to order the Constitutional Court to address the question of the constitutionality of the Criminal Executive Code, which prohibits issuing the bodies of executed persons and reporting on the places of their burial.
