Belarus has no intention of abolishing death penalty - Prosecutor General's Office
MINSK. Feb 14 (Interfax) - Belarus has no intention of abolishing the death penalty, Belarusian Deputy Prosecutor General Alexei Stuk said.
"The Prosecutor General's Office does not have any [information] on any clear preconditions for this change [the abolition of the death penalty]," Stuck told a press conference in Minsk on Thursday.
At the same time, he said that "not a single death sentence was handed out last year."
Belarus remains the only country in Europe and the CIS that still practices the death penalty.
In accordance with Article 24 of the Belarusian Constitution, "the death penalty before its abolition can be used in accordance with the law as an exclusive measure of punishment for especially grave crimes and only under a court ruling."
In 1996, a referendum was held in Belarus, which included a question about the abolition of the death penalty. A total of 80.44% of the voters voted against the abolition of the death penalty.
The death penalty in Belarus is carried out by shooting.
Two people were sentenced to the death penalty in 2005, nine in 2006, and four in 2011. The high number of people sentenced to the death penalty in 2006 is due to the sentences handed out in cases involving several large criminal groups accused of numerous grave and especially grave crimes.
Vladislav Kovalyov and Dmitry Konovalov, the masterminds of the April 2011 terrorist attack in the Minsk metro, were sentenced to the death penalty on November 30, 2011. The Belarusian president's decision not to pardon the two men was announced on March 14. A report on the execution of the sentence came on March 17, 2012.
