The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

10.10.2018 Treatment of death row prisoners in Belarus

While on death row, convicts face a number of violations of their rights. During their one monthly visit with a family member (a right accorded under Article 174 of the Criminal Law Enforcement Code), they are forbidden from referring to detention conditions.

09.10.2018 Belarusian Orthodox church supports moratorium on death penalty

His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, has spoken in favor of introducing a moratorium on the death penalty in the country.

09.10.2018 EU, CoE reiterate call to introduce moratorium on executions in Belarus

Joint Declaration by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the European and World Day against the Death Penalty

02.10.2018 Week Against the Death Penalty: October 5-10

From 5 to 10 October, the annual Week Against the Death Penalty will be held in Belarus. This year’s evets will focus on the conditions of detention on death row.

19.09.2018 “They should have shot me instead”: The stories of death row inmates’ family members

In Belarus, you cannot sentence a woman to death — this is the law. But it is women who suffer most from death sentences. Over the 27 years of Belarus’s independence, more than 400 men have been shot in Belarus. Behind each of them, there is the ruined life of at least one woman. We collected the stories of five of them.

03.08.2018 Pope Francis declares death penalty inadmissible in all cases

Pope Francis has changed the teachings of the Catholic faith to officially oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, the Vatican has said.

26.07.2018 Death row prisoner Ihar Hershankou loses 18 kilos on hunger strike

Ihar Hershankou started his hunger strike on June 27 to protest violations of his right to correspondence, after all his complaints, including to the Prosecutor General, the Department of Corrections and Belarus’s envoy to the UN, as well as many letters to relatives, failed not reach their destinations.

23.07.2018 Amnesty International: Iranian in Belarus at risk of imminent deportation, faces death penalty in home country

Iranian citizen Mehrdad Jamshidian, who suffers from acute ill-health, was detained on 14 June in Belarus. He is at imminent risk of deportation to Iran, where he may be subjected to torture and the death penalty for ‘apostasy’ and murder accusations.

16.07.2018 UN Human Rights Committee registers complaint of death convict Hershankou

On July 13, the UN Human Rights Committee confirmed the registration of an individual communication submitted on behalf of Ihar Hershankou, who was sentenced to death by the Mahilioŭ Regional Court on July 21, 2017.

26.06.2018 Death row prisoner Ihar Hershankou goes on hunger strike

Ihar Hershankou, who was earlier sentenced to death, says he is beginning a hunger strike while on death row in Minsk’s detention center No. 1 to protest numerous violations of his right to correspondence, Viasna learned from the prisoner’s mother.

18.06.2018 Amnesty International: Unprecedented Supreme Court decision to suspend death sentences

"This is a hugely significant and unprecedented decision for the only country in the region that has continued to execute people all these years."

31.05.2018 PACE rapporteurs condemn two recent executions in Belarus

Yves Cruchten (Luxembourg, SOC), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, and Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE), former PACE rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, have strongly condemned the execution of Aliaksei Mikhalenia and Viktor Liotau, which reportedly took place in secret in mid-May.

30.05.2018 EU deplores two new executions in Belarus

Statement by the Spokesperson on the application of the death penalty in Belarus

30.05.2018 Supreme Court confirms death sentences for Zhylnikau and Sukharko

The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences earlier handed down to Aliaksandr Zhylnikau and Viachaslau Sukharko for the murder of three people. The judgment was pronounced after the court completed hearing Zhylnikau’s appeal, while Sukharko refused to challenge the verdict.