The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

22.01.2018 Court sends two to death after retrial

The Minsk City Court has sentenced two persons to death after a retrial on January 20. Viachaslau Sukharka and Aliaksandr Zhylnikau were found guilty of murdering three people in December 2015. One more defendant in the case, Alina Shulhanava, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

15.01.2018 Amnesty International: 2 men in Belarus at risk of imminent execution

The death sentences of Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoy were upheld by the Supreme Court of Belarus on 20 December 2017. The two men were convicted and sentenced to death by the Mahiliou Regional Court, in eastern Belarus, on 21 July 2017. In the likely event that their appeal for clemency is rejected by the President, both men will be at risk of imminent execution.

29.12.2017 EU statement on two upheld death sentences in Belarus

Statement by the Spokesperson on two upheld death sentences in Belarus

20.12.2017 Supreme Court confirms death verdicts for 2 men

The Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of Belarus has upheld the death sentences earlier handed down to Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoi, two of the four people involved in the so-called ‘black realtors’ case’.

30.11.2017 Death Penalty in Europe and Central Asia: Close to the Finishing Line

On 11 December 1977 Amnesty International and participants of the International Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty issued the Stockholm Declaration which called on all governments to bring about the immediate and total abolition of the death penalty. At the time, only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty. Forty years on, that figures stands at 105. To mark this anniversary, Amnesty International looks through this newsletter at trends in Europe and Central Asia and takes a closer look at the use of the death penalty in Belarus, the last executioner in the region.

10.10.2017 EU and CoE call for moratorium on executions in Belarus on World Day against Death Penalty

On the European and World Day against the Death Penalty, the Council of Europe and the European Union reaffirm their strong and unequivocal opposition to capital punishment in all circumstances and for all cases. The death penalty is incompatible with human dignity. It constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment, does not have any proven deterrent effect and allows judicial errors to become irreversible and fatal.

09.10.2017 Death Penalty in Belarus: Secret Executions in the Middle of Europe

Minsk-Paris, 6 October 2017. Ahead of the International Day against the Death Penalty on the 10th of October, our organisations recall that executions continue to take place in the middle of Europe. Detained in conditions amounting to torture, in constant psychological anguish caused by the uncertainty of the timing of their execution, prisoners in Belarus are being killed in secrecy.

05.10.2017 Viasna to join World Coalition against the Death Penalty

Joining forces with supporters of the global abolitionist movement is another step of the Belarusian human rights defenders towards ending the death penalty in the country. At the same time, Belarus is marked on the world map as a place where death sentences are often imposed on representatives of the most vulnerable groups.

04.10.2017 Schedule of events within the Week against the Death Penalty

The traditional Week against the Death Penalty will be held in various parts of Belarus on October 5-10. “The death penalty is the past”. This is the key message of awareness-raising activities within the Week.

19.09.2017 Belarus in focus at OSCE event on the death penalty

Amnesty International and FIDH continue to raise the issue of the death penalty at international fora, as another thematic event has been held within the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw. The side event involved human rights activists from Belarus, one of the two OSCE countries that still execute death convicts.

25.07.2017 PACE: Abolition of death penalty in Belarus, simply a question of political will

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), PACE rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, have denounced the two death sentences handed down by the Mogilev regional court in Belarus.

24.07.2017 EU Criticizes Belarusian Death Sentences

The European Union on July 21 criticized the two latest death sentences handed down in Belarus, saying that they "violate the right to life."

21.07.2017 Two new death verdicts handed down in Mahilioŭ

The Mahilioŭ Regional Court completed today the hearing of a headline-making case of ‘black estate agents’, sentencing two defendants, Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnou, to death and two more, Tatsiana Hershankova and Barys Kalesnikau, to lengthy prison terms.

18.07.2017 Amnesty International: Aliaksei Mikhalenya at risk of imminent execution

On 30 June, the Supreme Court denied Aliaksei Mikhalenya’s appeal and upheld his death sentence. Aliaksei Mikhalenya was later transferred to the pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) #1 in Minsk where death row inmates are kept and death sentences are believed to be executed. He is at risk of imminent execution.