Belarus sentences Russian citizen to death penalty - human rights organization
MINSK. Dec 17 (Interfax) - A Belarusian court has handed down the death penalty on a 53-year-old citizen of Russia found guilty of multiple murders, the non-registered Belarusian human rights center Vesna reported on its website.
"The Vesna human rights center has learned that the death penalty has been handed down again in Belarus. The convicted is a 53-year-old citizen of Russia, Eduard Lykov, who was accused of five counts of murder while intoxicated," Vesna reported.
"The sentence was handed down by the Minsk Regional Court on November 26, 2013," Vesna said. "Lykov has been under investigation since 2011," and "he has had three different defense lawyers in this time," it said.
The Minsk Regional Court confirmed to Interfax that, "the Minsk Regional Court's Criminal Board sentenced Lykov to ultimate punishment."
However, a spokesman for the secretariat of the Minsk Regional Court's Criminal Board said Lykov, born in 1960, is a citizen of Belarus registered in the city of Baranovichi.
Lykov has been unemployed and has not had a permanent residence lately, the spokesman told Interfax.
Lykov has filed a cassation appeal against the sentence. "It is currently under consideration at the Minsk Regional Court and has not yet been forwarded to the Supreme Court," he said.