BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

30/10/2009

Council of Europe concerned about a new death penalty case in Belarus

FOCUS News Agency

Strasbourg. , "We are deeply disturbed by the news that the Belarus Supreme Court has once again rejected an appeal against the death penalty handed down to a Belarusian citizen, and that Andrei Zhuk, condemned to death by a Minsk regional court on 22 July, may face imminent execution.

We call on President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to grant clemency to Mr Zhuk, to declare forthwith a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Belarus, and to commute the sentences of all prisoners sentenced to death to terms of imprisonment.

An act of clemency by the President of Belarus would be an unequivocal signal of Belarus's intentions to align itself with the 47 member States of the Council of Europe, all of which have suspended or abolished the death penalty," say Samuel Zbogar, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, and Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, in a statement.

Source:

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n198827

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