Number of Death Punishments in Belarus Decreases

Source: www.charter97.org

Belarus is following the path of narrowing the sphere of the capital punishment use, told the chairman of the Soviet of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Henadz Navitski at a press-conference dedicated to the results of his visit to Rome.

The speaker told that at the meeting with the PACE Vice President Andrea Rigoni an issue of capital punishment abolition at the territory of Belarus as one of the conditions for resuming the status of a special guest of the PACE for Belarusian parliamentary delegation was discussed. Henadz Navitski reminded to Andrea Rigoni that capital punishment could be abolished in Belarus only through a referendum. At the same time he reminded Mr. Rigoni that our state has demonstrated a considerable decrease of number of judgments of death over the recent years (47 in 1998, 13 in 1999, 4 in 2003, 2 in 2005 and 2006).

Besides, Henadz Navitski noted that a number of articles of the Belarusian Criminal Code including a possibility of a capital punishment have been reduced twice. Besides, the legislation gives capital punishment a status of a temporary measure.