News on the topic: death penalty
16.12.2009 Hary Pahaniayla: ‘The state cannot be forced to commit murders itself’
Hary Pahaniayla, lawyer of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, expressed his view against the death penalty, in the framework of the campaign ‘Human Rights Activists against the Death Penalty in Belarus.’
10.12.2009 Human rights defenders pass petition to authorities
On the International Human Rights Day representatives of the Belarusian human rights community passed to the Presidential Administration a petition calling to abolish the death penalty as a kind of punishment that contradicts to the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution and international human rights treaties.
02.12.2009 Valiantsin Stefanovich: ‘No referendum is needed for the abolition of the death penalty, the legislation needs to be amended instead’
‘Legally, no referendum is needed for the abolition of the death penalty,’ says human rights activist and Viasna’s lawyer Valiantsin Stefanovich, commenting President Lukashenka’s recent statement in an interview with the La Stampa newspaper. Lukashenka said that the use of the death penalty is based on the results of the 1996 referendum and that, ‘under the Constitution, only another referendum can reverse its results.’
02.12.2009 Poet Andrei Khadanovich: ‘The death penalty has always been a means of restraint and intimidation’
Andrei Khadanovich, famous Belarusian poet, translator and head of the Belarusian PEN-Center, has joined the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus.
02.12.2009 Jean-Louis Laurens: ‘The abolition of the death penalty requires the political will of the country’s leaders’
‘Of course, the Special Guest status is very important, but its absence is not an obstacle to the cooperation between the Council of Europe and Belarus in various fields,’ said Jean-Louis Laurens, Council of Europe's Director General of Democracy and Political Affairs, during his visit to Minsk, six months after PACE named the abolition of or the declaration of a moratorium on the death penalty as the key condition for the restoration of the country’s Special Guest status in the Council of Europe.
30.11.2009 Information campaign for abolition of death penalty to be carried out in Belarus, Lukashenka says
In his interview with the La Stampa Italian newspaper, President Lukashenka said an information campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus would be launched in the near future, the BELTA news agency reports.
25.11.2009 Aleh Hulak: ‘The death penalty is a humiliation of people, the right, the present’
Aleh Hulak, head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, has joined the campaign against the death penalty in Belarus. ‘I believe that Belarus must abolish the death penalty. It is savage to allow the state to murder a human being in the XXI century.
24.11.2009 Prosecutor General turns down Viasna's complaint
The Human Rights Center Viasna has recieved another reply to its complaint lodged with the Office of Prosecutor's General of Belarus concerning the forthcoming execution of the death sentences to Vasil Yuzepchuk and Andrei Zhuk. In an official reply, representative of the Prosecutor's Office Mrs. Haurylenka says that 'only the convict, his legal advisor, the victim, public defendant or their representatives can appeal the verdict... Since the applicants are not participants of the criminal process, the complaint is left unattended.'
20.11.2009 Death convict Andrei Zhuk pleas for mercy
Andrei Zhuk, sentenced to death for alleged murder of two persons, has lodged a plea for mercy with President Lukashenka. This is his last and only chance. Belarusian human rights activists believe that Andrei Zhuk should be pardoned. ‘We, as human rights defenders, call upon the Belarusian authorities to display humanism. Andrei Zhuk’s family have also addressed the President with a plea for mercy. Albeit lacking any legal effect, we do hope their appeal will be taken into consideration by the authorities, too,’ said Viasna’s lawyer Valiantsin Stefanovich.
20.11.2009 Famous film director Zanussi condemns death penalty
During his visit to the Listapad international film festival in Minsk, the world famous Polish film director Krzysztof Zanussi has commented on his view of the death penalty. ‘You know, in my country it was banned a long time ago. Pope John Paul II used to speak strongly, saying there was no justification for the death penalty in the modern world, though there perhaps used to be one before. Surely, from a human point of view, I am definitely opposed to it; it seems to me to be something absolutely unreal.
19.11.2009 Russia’s Constitutional Court bans death penalty
The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has ruled to declare that the death penalty cannot be used even after the termination of the moratorium, the Interfax news agency reports. The moratorium on the death penalty expires on 1 January 2010, together with the introduction of the jury trial in Russia’s last region – Chechen Republic. After that there would be no formal obstacles for using the death penalty in Russia. However, the Constitutional Court stresses that the introduction of the jury trial in Russia does not allow for the use of the death penalty.
16.11.2009 Belarusian authorities consider Yuzepchuk’s address to UN illegal
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has received from the state organs of Belarus explanations concerning the individual communication on behalf of the death convict Vasil Yuzepchuk.
16.11.2009 Death penalty: news in Vasil Yuzepchuk’s case
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs answered the address of human rights defenders concerning the registration of the death convict Vasil Yuzepchuk’s communication by the UN Human Rights Committee.
11.11.2009 Andrei Zhuk’s mother addressed Belarusian president asking to pardon her son
Struggling for the life of her son, Andrei Zhuk’s mother is trying to use all possible means including the international mechanisms and personal address to the president. On 10 November Sviatlana Zhuk addressed Aliaksandr Lukashenka through mass media, asking to pardon her son, the death verdict to whom came into force after consideration of the cassation complaint by the Supreme Court.
05.11.2009 Pavel Sapelka: ‘The state must take the responsibility for the results of breeding its citizens’
The lawyer Pavel Sapelka joined the campaign Human Rights Defenders against Death Penalty and signed the petition to the Belarusian authorities with the demand to abolish the death penalty in the country.
