"Young Front" addresses MPs concerning death penalty moratorium

Civil organization "Young Front", officially registered in the Czech Republic, addressed all members of the Chamber of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus with the demand to initiate a voting on introducing a death penalty moratorium in Belarus.

"Belarus is the last country on the continent, where the practice of execution of death sentences still exists. To our mind, the very fact of killing of a man by the state has ceased to correspond to the notion of civilized society long ago and contradicts to the Christian traditions of our country.

It's also worth saying about the absence of independent court, procuracy and police in Belarus. It is hard to say about any "lawfulness", "fairness" or "expediency" of death verdicts in the conditions when these agencies are factually uncontrollable.

We are also outraged by the fact that relatives of death convicts aren't informed about the time of their death and the place of the burial, and aren't issued the bodies," reads the address.

Bear in mind that during the national referendum of 1996 80.44% respondents voted for the preservation of the death penalty. More than 15 years have passed since then. According to the results of the poll, held by the Institute for Socio-Economical and Political Studies (Vilnius, Lithuania), at present 49.7% Belarusians think that the death penalty should be abolished.