Authorities responded to PACE – another death sentence delivered

The Court of the Minsk region sentenced killers of two officers of Bolshevik-Agro company in the Minsk region to death and life imprisonment.

“Two dwellers of Salihorsk, found guilty of murder of two officers of the company, were sentenced to death and life imprisonment,” Interfax learnt from the prosecutor’s office of the Minsk region.

According to a source of the agency, another accused in this case got 13 years in prison, he was found guilty of aiding killing.

The prosecutor’s office noted the court found “two people guilty of killing 2 persons committed by a group of people for selfish motives.”

The judgement hasn’t taken effect yet, the prosecutor’s office said.

A chief economist (female) and a driver of Bolshevik-Agro company (male) were killed in the Salihorsk district at the end of February this year.

It has been the second death penalty in Belarus for the last month. In late June this year, the court sentenced two Belarusians for murders of six pensioners in the Drahichyn district to death and life imprisonment. Lawyers filed a cassation appeal against the judgment.

The judgement was delivered a week after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said the special guest status for the Belarusian “parliament” would be restored only after Belarus imposed a moratorium on the death penalty.

International Amnesty and Belarusian Helsinki Committee condemned a month ago the capital punishment issued in Belarus.