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The Firing Squad Author Aleh Alkayeu Gives Lengthy Interview

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The Firing Squad Author Aleh Alkayeu Gives Lengthy Interview

The ex-head of the Minsk detention center No. 1 talked with the journalists of the project The Liudi.

On August 15, the project The Liudi published a film on its youtube channel dedicated to the death penalty in Belarus, Belsat reports.

"There were always spare shooters, but only one was shooting. Sometimes, four shots were needed. When one shot wasn't successful. The doctor checks – the heart beats. You can wait, when he dies, or you can shoot again. I was making such decisions," – the former head of the Minsk SIZO No. 1 Aleh Alkayeu says.

According to the ex-head of the Minsk SIZO No. 1, the executors of the death sentences "knew what they were doing" and did not worry much about that.

In addition to the brutal details of the execution of death sentences, the film describes the day schedule of a prisoner sentenced to death.

"They usually had no money. They did not buy food at the kiosk. Mostly cigarettes. There were usually two people in a cell. We had, it seems, 17 cells. When there were many people, then one cell could contain three people," – Alkayeu recalls.

Belarus is the only country in Europe and the CIS to apply the death penalty. The international community has repeatedly called on the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty. At the 1996 referendum, 80.44% of Belarusians voted against the abolition of the death penalty.

Aleh Alkayeu is the former head of the Minsk remand prison No. 1 (1996-2001). The author of the book "The Firing Squad." He received political asylum in Germany. In 2001, he suggested that Belarusian opposition politicians were killed with a pistol, which he had issued on the order of ex-minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Yury Sivakou.

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