First Death Sentence This Year

On January 5 Minsk regional court delivered a death sentence to Vileika dweller. He is found guilty in murder of his common-law wife.

Earlier he was sentenced to death in the Soviet times; however, he managed to appeal against it, Belarusian News report.

The Soviet legislation provided imprisonment of 8-15 years or death penalty for aggravated killing. In Belarus life imprisonment was introduced as an alternative to execution only in 1997.

Thus, a Vileika dweller was likely condemned to a long-time imprisonment not exceeding 15 years.

The accused also had an episode with infliction of grave bodily injuries resulted in death.

The case was considered under Article 139, para 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (brutal murder), regional kraj.by writes.

A state prosecutor asked the court to issue the extreme penalty to the accused. The court accepted it. The sentence has not yet come into legal effect and can be appealed against in the Supreme Court.

This is the first death sentence in 2016. In 2015 resident of the Lida district Ivan Kulesh who was declared guilty of a killing of three people, as well as of an assault to murder, stealing, robbery was sentenced to the extreme penalty. Siarhei Ivanou convicted for brutal murder of a girl in Rechytsa is in the death row in Valadarskaha Street.

There have been 406 death sentences in history of independent Belarus. And only one was pardoned by Lukashenka. Belarus remains the only country in Europe and the former USSR with the death penalty.