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Rights defenders launch week of action against death penalty

Belarusian human rights defenders on Saturday launched a week of action against the death penalty as part of their campaign started in 2009 to put an end to executions in Belarus.

During the week, rights defenders will hold seminars and discussions for students in Minsk and other cities, and distribute print, photo and video materials to raise public awareness of the death penalty. Participants will include prominent figures who have signed the Petition Against the Death Penalty.

In Hrodna, local rights defenders have filed an application with the city government for permission to stage an awareness event.

The week will culminate in a press conference in Minsk on October 10, the World Day Against the Death Penalty, which will feature relatives of executed death row prisoners and those sentenced to death.

Belarus is the only country in Europe and the post-Soviet region where the death sentence remains a sentencing option and prisoners are executed. The European Union and other international organizations have repeatedly called on the Belarusian government to abolish the death penalty or impose a moratorium on it.

Three people have been sentenced to death in Belarus this year.

According to human rights defenders, no one is known to have been executed in Belarus this year. At least three were executed last year, two in 2011, two in 2010, no one in 2009, at least four in 2008 and at least one in 2007. As many as 46 people were executed in the country in 1995, the same number in 1997 and 47 in 1998. //BelaPAN