236 death sentences passed in Belarus in the last 16 years

The Ministry of Justice sent the information to the Movement for Freedom (MFF) activist concerning the number of death sentences passed by the Belarusian courts starting from 1990.

 

According to the information of the Department on Organization and Analytical Supply of the Court’s Work, the peak of death sentences occurred in 1997-1998 (46 and 47 death penalties, correspondingly), with later significant decrease in this practice inadmissible for the civilized European countries. The experts explain the sharp drop in the cases when death sentences were passed by the Belarusian courts by the improvement of the Criminal Code in 1999.

 

“A great number of death penalties in 1995-1998 is explained by the abundance of crime in the early 1990’s. Notorious cases on the large gangs’ crimes have usually been investigated and reached the courts only in some time or even some years. After the Criminal Code was amended, and the judges gained the possibility to penalize the offenders with 25 years of prison or with lifetime sentences, the number of death sentences has sharply reduced, which is, no doubt, a rather positive fact. However, I think that Belarus should completely abandon death penalty in order to get close to the standards of the Council of Europe. The world history proves that the presence of death penalty in a country doesn’t lead to the fall in the number of grave offences”, Raman Kislak, the MFF activist and the human rights advocate, comments on the numbers received from the Ministry of Justice.

 

 

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