BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/02/2008

Belarusian Authorities Release Another Political Prisoner And Carry Out Three Death Sentences

Artur Finkevich, a leader of the unregistered Youth Front organization, was unexpectedly released on February 5 after a Mahilyou City Court shortened his prison sentence, Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. Finkevich was arrested on January 30, 2006, and sentenced to two years of "restricted freedom" in a correctional facility for writing political graffiti. In October 2007, the authorities brought new charges against Finkevich, accusing him of misconduct and violating the internal rules of the correctional facility, and he was sentenced to another 18 months of restricted freedom. On February 5, the court considered Finkevich's appeal and found the 18-month term too harsh, shortening it to six months and releasing Finkevich immediately. Finkevich has been held in a pretrial detention center since October 26, 2007, and each day spent there by someone sentenced to restricted freedom is counted twice, therefore the court ruled that Finkevich has already served his shortened term. AM

Belarus's Supreme Court announced on February 5 that Syarhey Marozau, Valery Harbaty, and Ihar Danchanka, sentenced in 2006 to death for running an organized crime group, have been executed by shooting, Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. Belarus is the last European country where death sentences are handed down and carried out. In late November 2007, Rene van der Linden, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), appealed to the Belarusian authorities to commute the three death sentences to milder punishments. Van der Linden also called for introducing a moratorium on the death sentence, arguing that it is a precondition for joining PACE. According to a lawyer who requested anonymity, Marozau used many legal tricks to defer his execution in the hope that Belarus would introduce such a moratorium under Western pressure. AM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2008/02/3-cee/cee-060208.asp

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