Uladzimir Labkovich: Death penalty in Belarus is obscurantism and Middle Ages

There are no legal restrictions for introducing a moratorium on death penalty in Belarus.

This is how the Council member of the human rights center Viasna Uladzimir Labkovich commented for the charter97.org web-site on the third death penalty verdict passed in our country this year.

“We are categorically against this verdict. We do not assess the level of guilt in this or any of the previous cases, when a death penalty was the verdict, we consider the very fact of such a punishment as a death penalty to be absolutely inadmissible in modern European society. This is obviously a manifestation of obscurantism and the Middle Ages. We demand that the Belarusian authorities urgently introduce at least a moratorium on death penalty, and at best – to abolish this type of punishment as such. This people must not be punished this way, and we will do everything possible for these verdicts not to be executed, including appealing to international institutions”, - the lawyer emphasized.

He noted that there already were bad examples in Belarus, when violations of special UN Human Right Council’s procedures occurred in regards to the verdicts passed earlier, when the Belarusian party ignored those in principle and executed the death penalties.

“Actually there are no legal restrictions for introducing a moratorium. The only thing that is lacking is political will. And the references to the 1996 referendum’s results are legally insignificant, because the Constitution says that this type of punishment is valid up to the point of its abolition and that Belarus aims towards that. That is why there are no obstacles now to do that. Only political will is necessary and the willingness to approach modern universal human standards at least in that”, - the human rights activist concluded.

The verdict passed recently by a court in Homiel is the third in Belarus is 2013. Similar verdicts were passed by Mahilou and Hrodna regional courts.

We would remind that a death penalty verdict was passed recently for a Vilejka resident, who killed two people.

International organizations and human rights activists demand introducing a moratorium on death penalty in Belarus.