Tamara Sialiun appeals to Constitutional Court

Tamara Sialiun, mother of an executed death row convict Pavel Sialiun, has filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court. In it, she draws attention to the fact that the present practice of executing the death penalty and implementation of Article 175 of the Criminal Executive Code of the Republic of Belarus brings the suffering to the families and friends of those executed.

Tamara Sialiun insists that secrecy surrounding the time and place of execution and the place of burial and the refusals to issue the bodies of executed are equal to intimidating and punishing the families of the executed. It leaves the relatives in the state of uncertainty and psychological stress. Such actions on the part of the state can be regarded as torture of the relatives and cruel and inhuman treatment, contrary to part 3 of Article 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus and Art. 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Belarus.

To prove her position, the mother of the executed draws the opinions of the UN Human Rights Committee on the cases Bandarenka vs. Belarus, Liashkevich vs. Belarus, Kavaliova and Kaziar vs. Belarus, in which the Committee obliges Belarus to inform the relatives of the executed about the places of the burial of the latter ones and to refrain from similar violations in the future.

In connection with the aforesaid, Tamara Sialiun requests the Constitutional Court to institute proceedings for eliminating the inaccuracies in legal acts which lead to controversy with the Constitutions and international agreements and, as a result, to take a decision on introducing changes and supplements to the national legislation.

Moreover, Tamara Sialiun filed an appeal against a verdict of the Leninski District Court of Hrodna to the panel of judges for civil cases of Hrodna.

Let us remind that Pavel Sialiun was sentenced to death and executed on April 18, 2014. About a month later his mother Tamara Sialiun was sent the prison robe, in which he had been waiting for the execution. She wasn't informed about the time and place of the burial, and his body wasn't issued to her.

On February 23, 2014 Tamara Sialiun challenged the actions of the Department of Corrections and the Ministry of Interior to the Leninski District Court of Hrodna, which dismissed her appeal.