News on the topic: death penalty
21.04.2020 Amnesty International: 657 people executed in 2019, Belarus kills at least 2
In 2019, global executions fell by 5%, hitting a 10-year low, Amnesty International said in its annual overview of the death penalty around the world.
13.04.2020 Amnesty International calls on Belarus to commute death sentences of Kostseu brothers
Amnesty International has launched an urgent action in support of Stanislau and Illia Kostseu, death row prisoners in Belarus. It calls on its members worldwide to write to the authorities of Belarus urging them to commute the death sentences.
09.03.2020 EU reacts to new death sentence in Belarus
"The death penalty violates the inalienable right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment," the European Union said in a statement on another death sentence pronounced in Belarus.
06.03.2020 Man sentenced to death in Sluck on double murder charge
Viktar Skrundzik, aged 29, has been sentenced to death by the Minsk Regional Court after a trial held in the town of Sluck. The man was found guilty of killing two elderly people in January 2019.
20.02.2020 Amnesty International urges Belarus not to execute death row prisoner Viktar Serhel
Amnesty International has launched an urgent action in support of Viktar Serhel, death row prisoner who lost his appeal to the Supreme Court on January 31 and may be thus executed at any moment.
13.01.2020 EU, CoE “reaffirm strong opposition” to death penalty after new sentences delivered in Belarus
The European Union reaffirms its strong opposition against the application of capital punishment in any circumstance, the EU External Action Service said in a statement following the two death sentences handed down in Belarus on January 10.
10.01.2020 Two men sentenced to death in Čerykaŭ
Two men, Illia Kostseu and Stanislau Kostseu, have been sentenced to death at a visiting session of the Mahilioŭ Regional Court held today in the town of Čerykaŭ. Judge Mikhail Melnikau found the two brothers, aged 21 and 19, respectively, of killing their former school teacher and setting her house on fire to destroy the evidence.
23.12.2019 EU, CoE, PACE call for moratorium in response to new execution in Belarus
The spokespersons of the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the CoE’s Parliamentary Assembly have once again called on the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium on executions in Belarus. The statements were released after the news came of another execution in the continent’s last retentionist country.
20.12.2019 Belarus executes another death row prisoner
Death row prisoner Aliaksandr Asipovich was executed by shooting on December 17, according to the Mahilioŭ Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
11.12.2019 “All human beings are born equal”. Minsk marks Human Rights Day
The Human Rights Center “Viasna” marked December 10, Human Rights Day by opening an exhibition devoted to the topic of the death penalty.
04.12.2019 Amnesty International urges Belarus to halt execution of Viktar Paulau
Amnesty International has launched an urgent action calling on its members around the world to write to Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka. The activists are invited to ask the authorities of Belarus to halt the execution of Viktar Paulau.
12.11.2019 Supreme Court confirms death penalty for Viktar Paulau
The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence handed down to Viktar Paulau on July 30. The defendant was found guilty of double murder committed in December 2018.
06.11.2019 PACE rapporteur denounces fresh death sentence in Belarus
Titus Corlatean (Romania, SOC), General Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, has denounced a judgment of the Brest Regional Court (Belarus) of 25 October sentencing to death Viktar Serhil in a trial concerning the murder of an eight-month-old girl.
29.10.2019 EU, OSCE PA condemn new death sentence in Belarus
“A moratorium on executions in Belarus would be a positive first step towards the abolition of the death penalty in the country,” a statement by Maja Kocijancic, European Union Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, said in response to the death sentence handed down by the Brest Regional Court.
28.10.2019 New death sentence passed in Belarus
On October 25, the Brest Regional Court sentenced Viktar Serhil, 48, to death, finding him guilty of brutally murdering a minor (Part 2, Art. 139 of the Criminal Code).
