English

Demonstrations staged in London against executions in Belarus

Members of a Belarusian underground troupe called Belarus Free Theater and activists of the Free Belarus Now campaign staged demonstrations in London on Thursday morning, protesting the use of the death penalty in Belarus and the practice of refusing to hand over the bodies of the executed to their families.

During the “Give the Body Back” demonstrations, which took place near the building of the British parliament, in Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Square, participants, wrapped in white plastic bags, were lying motionless on the pavement.

Prominent British actor Jude Law had issued a video address calling for participation in the event.

Passers-by were invited to sign postcards demanding that the Belarusian authorities release political prisoners in the country.

The Give the Body Back campaign kicked off in the Netherlands in October 2012.

On November 30, 2012, the mother of Uladzislaw Kavalyow, a young man executed in Belarus in March 2012 over a subway bombing; Iryna Bahdanava, a sister of former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikaw; and Lera Krasowski, a daughter of a Belarusian government opponent who disappeared in 1999, called on the international community to demand that the Belarusian authorities hand over Mr. Kavalyow's body to his family. //BelaPAN