Capital punishment in Belarus
Encyclopedia
The provision for Capital Punishment in Belarus has been a part of the country since gaining independence from the Soviet Union
. The current national constitution
prescribes this punishment for "grave crimes." Later laws have clarified the specific crimes for which capital punishment can be used. Capital punishment can be issued for crimes that occur against the state or against individuals. A few non-violent crimes can be issued with the sentence of capital punishment. According to Amnesty International
, Belarus
is the last country in the CIS
and the whole of Europe to execute criminals.
Despite a referendum on the issue, the Belarusian government has taken steps to change the way capital punishment is sentenced and carried out. International organizations, such as the United Nations, have criticized the methods Belarus uses when carrying out capital punishment. The use of capital punishment is one factor keeping the country out of the Council of Europe
.
states that:
As per the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus
, capital punishment can be imposed for the following acts:
Most of the death penalty convictions were for murder committed under aggravating circumstances. Court proceedings involving capital cases must involve a "collegial consideration," consisting of one judge and two People's assessors. The People's assessors are chosen from the general population, similar to the jury
system.
Over the years, the number of offenses inviting death penalty and the type of convicts eligible for the same have reduced. In 1993, four economic crimes which would have resulted in death penalty during the Soviet
era were removed from the list of capital offenses by a vote of parliament and were replaced by prison terms without parole. Although the total number of categories of crime qualifying for capital punishment declined during this time, Presidential Decree No. 21, issued on 21 October 1997, added "terrorism" to the list of capital offenses. When the Criminal Code was updated in 1999, the number of capital offenses was further reduced. This reduction was assisted by the introduction of life imprisonment
in December 1997.
Since March 1, 1994, women are ineligible for capital punishment and those under the age of 18 at the time of the crime or over 65 at the time of sentencing were exempt from capital punishment since January of 2001. Those who are mentally ill may have their death sentence commuted. Under Article 84 of the Constitution, the president
"may grant pardon
s to convicted citizens". From June 30, 2003 to June 30, 2005, President Alexander Lukashenko
granted two pardons to death row inmates and denied one such request.
In 2000, the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe
condemned:
"in the strongest possible terms the executions in Belarus and deplores the fact that Belarus is currently the only country in Europe where the death penalty is enforced and, moreover, is regularly and widely enforced".
Belarus is not the only European nation that allows the death penalty during times of war; it is also allowed in Latvia
in such circumstances. Belarus, however, is the only European nation that issues the sentence during times of peace as well as war. Regardless of the fact that Council member Latvia does have limited provision for capital punishment, Council members suggested in 2001 that Belarus abolish capital punishment before it can apply for membership in the Council. Belarus (as the Byelorussian SSR
) signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
in 1973. This convention, however, does not abolish the death penalty, but it imposes certain conditions on its implementation and use.
are transferred to Minsk Detention Center No. 1 (СИЗО, or SIZO No. 1), located in the capital city of Minsk
. The method used to carry out the sentence is execution by shooting
. Instead of a squad of shooters, the condemned is shot in the back of the head by a single shooter. The executioner is a member of the "Committee for the execution of sentences," which also chooses the area where the execution will take place. After the sentence is carried out, a prison doctor and other prison officials certify that the execution has been carried out, and a death certificate
is prepared. The remains of the condemned are buried secretly, and the family is notified that the execution took place. Col. Oleg Alkayev, who was a director of SIZO No. 1, claimed that about 130 executions took place at the prison between December 1996 and May 2001, when he left Belarus to live in exile in Berlin
, Germany
.
The United Nations
Human Rights Committee
issued the following opinion of the execution process in Belarus after the mother of subsequently executed prisoner Anton Bondarenko petitioned the Committee to spare her son's life:
The exact number of people executed in Belarus is not known, since the last documents released by the Belarusian Government were in 2006. Moreover other sources, notably BelaPAN, have published somewhat different data. BelaPAN, the abbreviation for "Беларускае прыватнае агентства навiн" (Belarusian Private News Agency), records 278 executions from 1992 to 2010 with two additional men under death sentence in September 2010. Due to some of the practices of the MVD, such as the non-disclosure of the graves of the executed, this is a violation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe protocol to make information about capital punishment open to the public.
Executions in Belarus between 1985 and 2010 (BelaPAN 2010):
More recently a parliamentary special working group announced plans to conduct a public opinion poll, but the Information and Analytical Center with the Administration of the President took over this undertaking. The Center has released its report, “Public Opinion about the Activity of the Organs of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus,” which included the questions about death penalty and the attitudes of Belarusian citizens about abolition of capital punishment. That poll showed only 4.5 % of the respondents were against capital punishment in all cases. 79.5% considered capital punishment appropriate punishment for at least some grave crimes. But about 10% had a difficulty answering these questions or offered no opinion .
There have been several steps toward reducing the use of the death penalty in Belarus. The Law of the Republic of Belarus of 31 December 1997 added Article 22 which allows for “imprisonment for the term of one’s life (life imprisonment) as an alternative to capital punishment.” Three categories of persons no longer may be executed: people under 18 years of age, women, and men over 65 years.
. The Court stated that either the President or the National Assembly could make the decision to suspend or completely abolish the death penalty. Subsequently, in October 2005, the Parliament adopted an amendment to the Criminal Code declaring that the continued use of the death penalty was on a temporary basis only. There were three executions on February, 2008., but only two recorded by BelaPAN, with two more in 2009 according to BelaPAN and two in March 2010 .
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The current national constitution
Constitution of Belarus
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus is the ultimate law of Belarus. Adopted in 1994, three years after the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union, this formal document establishes the framework of the Belarusian state and government and enumerates the rights and freedoms...
prescribes this punishment for "grave crimes." Later laws have clarified the specific crimes for which capital punishment can be used. Capital punishment can be issued for crimes that occur against the state or against individuals. A few non-violent crimes can be issued with the sentence of capital punishment. According to Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
is the last country in the CIS
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
and the whole of Europe to execute criminals.
Despite a referendum on the issue, the Belarusian government has taken steps to change the way capital punishment is sentenced and carried out. International organizations, such as the United Nations, have criticized the methods Belarus uses when carrying out capital punishment. The use of capital punishment is one factor keeping the country out of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
.
Legislation
Article 24 of the Constitution of BelarusConstitution of Belarus
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus is the ultimate law of Belarus. Adopted in 1994, three years after the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union, this formal document establishes the framework of the Belarusian state and government and enumerates the rights and freedoms...
states that:
As per the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus
Criminal Code of Belarus
The Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus contains the fundamental laws to announce what is considered illegal to perform inside Belarus. Passed in 1999, several of these laws were carried over from laws passed in 1960 as the Byelorussian SSR. In the 1999 edition, the Criminal code contains...
, capital punishment can be imposed for the following acts:
- Launching or conducting aggressive warWar of aggressionA war of aggression, sometimes also war of conquest, is a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense usually for territorial gain and subjugation. The phrase is distinctly modern and diametrically opposed to the prior legal international standard of "might makes right", under...
(Article 122, Part 2) - Murder of a representative of a foreign state or international organization in order to provoke international complications or war (Article 124, Part 2)
- International terrorismTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
(Article 126) - GenocideGenocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
(Article 127) - Crime against humanityCrime against humanityCrimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings...
(Article 128) - Application of weapons of mass destructionWeapons of mass destructionA weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
under international treaties of the Republic of Belarus (Article 134) - Violation of the war laws and usageLaws of warThe law of war is a body of law concerning acceptable justifications to engage in war and the limits to acceptable wartime conduct...
(Article 135, Part 3) - MurderMurderMurder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
committed under aggravating circumstances (Article 139, Part 2) - TerrorismTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
(Article 289, Part 3) - TreasonTreasonIn law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
connected with murder (Article 356, Part 2) - Conspiracy to seize state powerRevolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
(Article 357, Part 3) - Terrorist acts (Article 359)
- SabotageSabotageSabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
(Article 360, Part 2) - Murder of a police officerPolice officerA police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
. (Article 362)
Most of the death penalty convictions were for murder committed under aggravating circumstances. Court proceedings involving capital cases must involve a "collegial consideration," consisting of one judge and two People's assessors. The People's assessors are chosen from the general population, similar to the jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
system.
Over the years, the number of offenses inviting death penalty and the type of convicts eligible for the same have reduced. In 1993, four economic crimes which would have resulted in death penalty during the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
era were removed from the list of capital offenses by a vote of parliament and were replaced by prison terms without parole. Although the total number of categories of crime qualifying for capital punishment declined during this time, Presidential Decree No. 21, issued on 21 October 1997, added "terrorism" to the list of capital offenses. When the Criminal Code was updated in 1999, the number of capital offenses was further reduced. This reduction was assisted by the introduction of life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
in December 1997.
Since March 1, 1994, women are ineligible for capital punishment and those under the age of 18 at the time of the crime or over 65 at the time of sentencing were exempt from capital punishment since January of 2001. Those who are mentally ill may have their death sentence commuted. Under Article 84 of the Constitution, the president
President of Belarus
The office of President of Belarus is the head of state of Belarus. The office was created in 1994 with the passing of the Constitution of Belarus by the Supreme Soviet. This replaced the office of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet as the head of state...
"may grant pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
s to convicted citizens". From June 30, 2003 to June 30, 2005, President Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko has been serving as the President of Belarus since 20 July 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm. Under Lukashenko's rule, Belarus has come to be viewed as a state whose conduct is out of line...
granted two pardons to death row inmates and denied one such request.
In 2000, the Parliamentary Assembly
Parliamentary assembly
A parliamentary assembly can mean one of the following:*National Parliament, a type of state legislative assembly body*Assembly of national parliaments, an inter-parliamentary institution of state national legislatures...
of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
condemned:
"in the strongest possible terms the executions in Belarus and deplores the fact that Belarus is currently the only country in Europe where the death penalty is enforced and, moreover, is regularly and widely enforced".
Belarus is not the only European nation that allows the death penalty during times of war; it is also allowed in Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
in such circumstances. Belarus, however, is the only European nation that issues the sentence during times of peace as well as war. Regardless of the fact that Council member Latvia does have limited provision for capital punishment, Council members suggested in 2001 that Belarus abolish capital punishment before it can apply for membership in the Council. Belarus (as the Byelorussian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was one of the four original founding members of the Soviet Union in 1922, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
) signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...
in 1973. This convention, however, does not abolish the death penalty, but it imposes certain conditions on its implementation and use.
Method
Before execution, all prisoners on death rowDeath row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
are transferred to Minsk Detention Center No. 1 (СИЗО, or SIZO No. 1), located in the capital city of Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
. The method used to carry out the sentence is execution by shooting
Execution by shooting
Execution by shooting is a form of capital punishment whereby an executed person is shot by one or more firearms. It is the most common method of execution worldwide, used in about 70 countries, with execution by firing squad being one particular form...
. Instead of a squad of shooters, the condemned is shot in the back of the head by a single shooter. The executioner is a member of the "Committee for the execution of sentences," which also chooses the area where the execution will take place. After the sentence is carried out, a prison doctor and other prison officials certify that the execution has been carried out, and a death certificate
Death certificate
The phrase death certificate can describe either a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or popularly to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later...
is prepared. The remains of the condemned are buried secretly, and the family is notified that the execution took place. Col. Oleg Alkayev, who was a director of SIZO No. 1, claimed that about 130 executions took place at the prison between December 1996 and May 2001, when he left Belarus to live in exile in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Human Rights Committee
Human Rights Committee
The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a United Nations body of 18 experts that meets three times a year for four-week sessions to consider the five-yearly reports submitted by 162 UN member states on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,...
issued the following opinion of the execution process in Belarus after the mother of subsequently executed prisoner Anton Bondarenko petitioned the Committee to spare her son's life:
Number of executions
The following is a rough estimate of number of executions carried out since 1990, as per Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD):- 1990 – 20
- 1991 – 14
- 1993 – 20
- 1994 – 24
- 1995 – 46
- 1997 – 46
- 1998 – 47
- 1999 – 13
- 2000 – 4
- 2001 – 7
- 2007 – at least one
- 2008 – at least 4
- 2009 – 0
- 2010 – 2
- 2011 – 2
The exact number of people executed in Belarus is not known, since the last documents released by the Belarusian Government were in 2006. Moreover other sources, notably BelaPAN, have published somewhat different data. BelaPAN, the abbreviation for "Беларускае прыватнае агентства навiн" (Belarusian Private News Agency), records 278 executions from 1992 to 2010 with two additional men under death sentence in September 2010. Due to some of the practices of the MVD, such as the non-disclosure of the graves of the executed, this is a violation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe protocol to make information about capital punishment open to the public.
Executions in Belarus between 1985 and 2010 (BelaPAN 2010):
- 1985 – 21 – Belarus SSR
- 1986 – 10
- 1987 – 12
- 1988 – 12
- 1989 – 5
- 1990 – 20
- 1991 – 21
- 1992 – 24 – Independent
- 1993 – 20
- 1994 – 25
- 1995 – 27
- 1996 – 29
- 1997 – 46
- 1998 – 47
- 1999 – 13
- 2000 – 4
- 2001 – 7
- 2002 – 4
- 2003 – 4
- 2004 – 5
- 2005 – 5
- 2006 – 9
- 2007 – 3
- 2008 – 2
- 2009 – 2
- 2010 – 2
Public opinion
In a 1996 referendum, one of the seven questions asked was about the opinion of Belarusian people about abolishing the death penalty. According to the results of this referendum, 80.44% of Belorussians were against abolishing the death penalty. However, at the time of the referendum, the longest available prison sentence was 15 years. Since then, the sentence of life-long imprisonment was introduced, in December 1997. There have not been more recent surveys to determine whether the change in maximum prison sentence affected public sentiment about the death penalty.More recently a parliamentary special working group announced plans to conduct a public opinion poll, but the Information and Analytical Center with the Administration of the President took over this undertaking. The Center has released its report, “Public Opinion about the Activity of the Organs of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus,” which included the questions about death penalty and the attitudes of Belarusian citizens about abolition of capital punishment. That poll showed only 4.5 % of the respondents were against capital punishment in all cases. 79.5% considered capital punishment appropriate punishment for at least some grave crimes. But about 10% had a difficulty answering these questions or offered no opinion .
There have been several steps toward reducing the use of the death penalty in Belarus. The Law of the Republic of Belarus of 31 December 1997 added Article 22 which allows for “imprisonment for the term of one’s life (life imprisonment) as an alternative to capital punishment.” Three categories of persons no longer may be executed: people under 18 years of age, women, and men over 65 years.
Court cases
On March 11, 2004, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus came to the conclusion that two articles of the Criminal Code were incompatible with the Constitution of BelarusConstitution of Belarus
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus is the ultimate law of Belarus. Adopted in 1994, three years after the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union, this formal document establishes the framework of the Belarusian state and government and enumerates the rights and freedoms...
. The Court stated that either the President or the National Assembly could make the decision to suspend or completely abolish the death penalty. Subsequently, in October 2005, the Parliament adopted an amendment to the Criminal Code declaring that the continued use of the death penalty was on a temporary basis only. There were three executions on February, 2008., but only two recorded by BelaPAN, with two more in 2009 according to BelaPAN and two in March 2010 .