BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/03/2010

Belarus Executions Draw European Protest

By REUTERS

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarussian rights activists said on Thursday that two convicts were executed last week, triggering protests from European parliamentarians.

Authorities in the former Soviet republic have not confirmed the executions, but Valentin Stefanovich of the Belarussian human rights group Spring-96 said prison officials had informed lawyers for Andrei Zhuk and Vasily Yuzepchuk of their execution.

"In Europe, there is no place for the death penalty. The Belarussian authorities should be aware that there cannot be political dialogue without shared values," the leaders of three European parliamentary bodies said in a joint statement.

Long ostracised in the West for his suppression of dissent, Belarusian President Alexander Lukachenko is seeking to reduce economic dependence on Russia and has taken some steps to improve ties with the European Union and United States.

"The decision to execute Mr Zhuk and Mr Yuzepchuk was taken in blatant disregard of the fact that the U.N. Human Rights Committee was still considering individual applications on their cases," the declaration said.

It was released by Sinikka Hurskainen, Jacek Protasiewicz and Uta Zapf, who lead bodies dealing with Belarus for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

The Belarusian Interior Ministry declined to comment.

Belarus is the only country in Europe that carries out executions, according to Amnesty International. Some other countries, including Russia, have not formally abolished the death penalty but observe moratoriums.

Under Belarussian legislation, official notification of the executions could take months, Stefanovich told Reuters.

Yuzepchuk was sentenced to death last July for the murder of six elderly women. At trial, his lawyer contended that Yuzepchuk had been beaten into confessing.

Zhuk was also sentenced last July, after being convicted of armed assault and murdering a man and woman in February 2009.

(Reporting by Andrei Makhovsky, writing by Conor Sweeney; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/03/25/world/international-uk-belarus-executions.html


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