UN Human Rights Committee asks Belarus not to execute death convict
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has confirmed the registration of a communication submitted by Andrei Paluda, coordinator of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders Against the Death Penalty in Belarus”, on behalf of Siarhei Ivanou, who was sentenced to death earlier this year.
The UN Committee says that the communication was registered under No. 2655/2015 and a copy was sent to the State party. The Committee also said that, “under rule 92 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, the State party was requested not to carry out Mr. Sergey Ivanov’s (Siarhei Ivanou’s) death sentence while his case is under consideration by the Committee”.
Before writing to the UNHRC, the claimant had passed all the judicial levels in Belarus. However, the sentence of capital punishment remained unchanged.
Andrei Paluda has sent a notification of the Committee’s decision to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The activist asks the Foreign Ministry to notify the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General and the Interior Ministry about the registration of Siarhei Ivanou’s complaint, as well as to monitor the implementation of international treaties by their subordinate institutions, specifically not to carry out the death sentence by the bodies of the Interior and the Prosecutor General's Office.
Earlier, Belarus carried out a number of death sentences despite requests from the Committee not to do so while the cases were under consideration.
“We hope that this time the Republic of Belarus will implement its international obligations and will not carry out the sentence in respect of Siarhei Ivanou until the UN Human Rights Committee issues a decision in his individual communication,” said Andrei Paluda.
Today, the death convict was visited by his lawyer, who informed him on the registration of his personal communication at the UN Human Rights Committee.
On March 18, Siarhei Ivanou, 21, was sentenced to death on charges of murdering and raping a 19-year-old girl back in August 2013. Besides murder charges committed with special cruelty and conjugated with sexual assault (Part 2, Art. 139 of the Criminal Code), the death convict was accused of malicious hooliganism (Part 2, Art. 339 of the Criminal Code), robbery (Part 2, Art. 206), inflicting serious bodily injuries (para. 7, Part 2, Art. 147), theft (Part 2, Art. 205), other acts of sexual nature (Part 3, Art. 167).
