Amnesty International pickets Belarusian Embassy in Moscow

Activists of Amnesty International held a picket against the death penalty in Belarus on April 10.

The picket was organised in front of the Embassy of Belarus in Moscow on occasion of Amnesty's annual review of death sentences across the world.  

Activists unfurled a 7-metre banner calling on the Belarusian authorities to establish a moratorium on the death penalty.

According to Amnesty International, more than 400 people were executed in Belarus in the last 20 years. There are grounds to suggest that they had to admit their guilt after tortures. People are executed by shooting  to the back of the head. Prisoners are told they will be executed a few hours or minutes before the sentence is carried out. Their bodies are not released to their families. Burial sites  are kept secret.