Page 5 of 5 FirstFirst ... 345
Results 41 to 47 of 47

Thread: Belarus

  1. #41
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Newport, United Kingdom
    Posts
    2,454
    In January 2020, a judge handed down death sentences for Stanislaw Kostsew and Ilya Kostsew.

    An appeal was dismissed on May 22, 2020, against the two brothers who murdered a teacher.

    The last remaining appeal is solely held to the President. The Kostsew brothers are asking Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for clemency.

    Since July 2020, the Kostsew brothers have both been transported to the Minsk Detention Center to await their execution. Both have asked to see a priest ahead of their execution.

    The executioner, who remains anonymous throughout the entire process, is kept behind a closed door. When an execution occurs, the condemned is blindfolded and asked to kneel forward when the executioner stands forward and shoots the prisoner one time in the head. If the prisoner is still alive after the shot, a second shot is immediate to conclude the execution. The body is taken away and given back to the family if that request is granted at the Detention Center.
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

  2. #42
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Related

    Kazakhstan abolishes capital punishment


    President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has signed a decree abolishing the death penalty in Kazakhstan, according to a statement released by his office on Saturday (2 January).

    The new law makes permanent the existing moratorium on state executions, introduced in 2003 by the first president of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

    The move was largely expected. Tokayev, a former high-ranking UN official who was elected in June 2019, announced that his country would join the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at abolishing the death penalty. The announcement was made in his speech at the 74th session of the UN General Assembly in December 2019.

    Russia, Tajikistan and Belarus are now the only three countries in Europe and Central Asia which haven’t yet signed or ratified the Second Optional Protocol. Belarus is the only country in Europe to carry out executions.

    Capital punishment in Kazakhstan has been abolished but was still permitted for war crimes or terrorism, as the UN Convention allows. In 2008 and 2016, Kazakhstan voted in favour of the UN Moratorium on the Death Penalty.

    While the former Soviet republic has not carried out an execution in almost two decades, death sentences have continued to be handed down to those convicted of serious crimes.

    Tokayev has spared convicts sentenced to death. One of the last pronounced death sentences in Kazakhstan was reportedly that of mass murderer Ruslan Kulekbayev who shot and killed eight police officers and two civilians during a rampage in the country’s largest city, Almaty, in 2016. He will now serve a life sentence instead.

    The last state-sanctioned executions carried out in the country were in May 2003, when 12 people were put to death by firing squad.

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/cen...al-punishment/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  3. #43
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Belarus MPs to mull over abolishing death penalty

    The first package of amendments to the Belarusian criminal legislation has already been approved by the National Assembly; it is to come into force in 2021.

    The second package which is being developed; the lawmakers are expected to consider it in a few months; it might take effect no earlier than next year. The proposal to remove from the Criminal Code the option of the death penalty as maximum punishment is the most revolutionary item included in the package. According to TUT.BY sources, the amendment was initiated by law enforcement agencies.

    Belarus remains the only country in Europe that still applies capital punishment. The West has repeatedly called on the Belarusian authorities to join a global moratorium as a first step towards the abolition of death penalty.

    The exact number of executions in Belarus is unknown, but local human rights defenders and journalists have worked tirelessly to uncover some information about death sentences and executions. According to the Ministry of Justice of Belarus, 245 people were sentenced to death from 1994 to 2014. Human rights NGOs believe that around 400 people have been executed since the country gained its independence in 1991; president Alyaksandr Lukashenka granted a pardon to only one convict.

    In June 2020, the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the appeal of Viktar Skrundzik. The man who was facing the death penalty for murdering several elderly people asked the authorities to re-define the charge and mitigate the sentence. As a result, the criminal case was reported to be sent for revision, but no further details were published.

    (source: belsat.eu)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  4. #44
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Newport, United Kingdom
    Posts
    2,454
    First death sentence passed in 2021

    In Belarus, for the first time in 2021, the death penalty was handed down. Viktor Skrundzyk was sentenced to death in Slutsk.

    This was reported by the human rights organization "Viasna".

    The decision was made by the Minsk Regional Court of Slutsk on January 15.

    Skrundzik and three of his accomplices were found guilty of killing two retirees and attempting to kill an 85-year-old woman.

    Two accomplices received 22 and 18 years of strict regime colonies, another - a year of work with the payment of 10% of wages.

    Skrundzik was first sentenced to death last year. However, in the fall, the Supreme Court overturned the decision and remanded the case for retrial.

    At the same time, human rights activists noted that in Belarus the death penalty is rarely imposed if the panel of the Supreme Court overturns the previous sentence.

    Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko has previously declared that the death penalty can be canceled only through a referendum.

    RBC-Ukraine also wrote that the process of abolishing the death penalty has begun in Kazakhstan.

    Kazakhstan signed a protocol on the abolition of death sentences in late September 2020.

    https://www.prudentpressagency.com/t...larus-in-2021/
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

  5. #45
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    Victor Pavlov and the Viktar Paulau mentioned earlier in post 40 are the same person.

    Belarus executes Victor Pavlov

    OHCHR

    The UN Human Rights Committee on Thursday condemned Belarus for its execution of Victor Pavlov, whose petition was still being examined by the Committee.

    Victor Pavlov is the 15th person since 2010 whose execution had been carried out at the same time as the case was pending before the Human Rights Committee. The Committee had requested Belarus to halt his execution while the independent experts examined his allegations of human rights violations.

    Pavlov was arrested on 3 January 2019 on suspicion of murder and larceny. He signed a confession on the same day without the presence of a lawyer. He was immediately remanded in custody by a prosecutor and was taken before a judge only five months later. He was sentenced to death by the Vitebsk Regional Court in July 2019. Following his appeal, the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the trial court’s decision in November the same year.

    After his unsuccessful appeal, he turned to the Human Rights Committee in 2020, claiming that he had been tortured in detention, denied access to legal assistance, and subjected to an unfair trial. The Committee registered Pavlov’s complaint and began the process to review his case.

    In addition to reiterating its requests for suspending the execution, since June 2021, the Committee has repeatedly asked for clarification from Belarus on Pavlov’s situation in light of information it received that he had been executed behind closed doors. However, Belarus did not respond to the Committee’s various requests.

    Recently, a domestic court finally informed Pavlov’s family that the death penalty had already been carried out, without providing any information about when he was executed or where he was buried.

    In similar cases, the Committee has found that undisclosed execution is a breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. “In death penalty cases, failure of a State party to provide relatives with information on the date of execution of an individual and burial site of the body leaves families in a state of uncertainty and mental distress, which constitutes a violation of the Covenant,” said Arif Bulkan, Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Committee.

    The Committee also found Belarus’ failure to comply with its request for interim measures is a violation of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in which States parties are obliged to cooperate with the Committee in good faith. The interim measures procedure under the Optional Protocol aims to stop a State party from taking any action that would have irreparable consequences. Belarus acceded the Optional Protocol in 1992.

    Belarus remains the last country in Europe and Central Asia that applies the death penalty. In its last report on Belarus published in November 2018 (available in English and Russian), the Human Rights Committee emphasized that Belarus “should consider establishing a moratorium on executions as an initial step towards legal abolition of the death penalty and ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant, commute all pending death sentences to imprisonment and increase efforts to change public perception about the necessity of maintaining the death penalty.”

    Despite Victor Pavlov’s execution, the Human Rights Committee, as per its usual practice, will fully examine his case at one of its upcoming sessions.

    https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/...x?NewsID=28249
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  6. #46
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    "Justice, as is often the case, has not been served." Oleg Alkaev died

    The author of the book "Firing Squad" was 69 years old.

    Oleg Alkayev, the former head of minsk pre-trial detention center No. 1, who headed it in 1996-2001, has died. According to Nasha N*va, he passed away in the early morning of September 20. Farewell to a political refugee who lived in Germany and was under the protection of the German authorities will be held in Berlin.

    Historian Alexander Fridman writes: "Last week marked the 23rd anniversary of the disappearance and apparently murder of politician Viktor Gonchar and businessman Anatoly Krasovsky. And today came the news about the death of the former head of the Minsk pre-trial detention center No. 1 Oleg Alkaev.

    Thanks to Colonel Alkayev, we learned many details of this and other political crimes. Over the past two decades, the purpose of Alkaev's life has been to expose and punish the organizers and participants of the "death squad" in Belarus. He was not destined to live to see that day. Justice, as is often the case, has not been served."

    https://gazetaby.media/post/spravedl...-vosto/187422/

    Alkayev's book covered the death penalty process in Belarus during his time as Prison warden. He spoke about numerous political dissidents who were executed.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #47
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    Wealthy father who tortured and starved his three-year-old son to death and made his short life 'pure hell' is sentenced to death with a bullet to the head in Belarus

    By WILL STEWART
    Daily Mail

    A wealthy father who tortured and starved his three-year-old son to death and made his short life 'pure hell' will be executed with a bullet to the head in Belarus.

    Alexander Taratuta, 48, has been sentenced to death for the brutal torture and murder of his son Semyon.

    He will be shot in the back of the head in Belarus, the only country in Europe to carry out capital punishment.

    His wife Anastasia Taratuta, 37, was sentenced to 25 years in a strict regime penal colony for the murder of Semyon.

    The death penalty - by a state executioner - is not allowed for women in Belarus.

    Both 'calmly listened to their sentences' while handcuffed in a glass court cage, reported Sputnik media.

    Alexander constantly looked away from the camera as a judge handed down the verdict, while Anastasia was seen holding her hands over her face in the dock as her husband was condemned to death.

    A court was told how the 'wealthy' couple inflicted a life of 'pure hell' on the boy.

    Little Semyon was forced to sleep on bare linoleum and was often numb from the cold at their privately-owned home in Slutsk, 65 miles south of capital Minsk.

    His mother - a Russian citizen - regularly punched Semyon in the face, and threw him at her husband or at the wall. She also dropped him into the bath.

    The three-year-old was tied to a table leg, and at other times, his hands were tethered and food was dangled in front of his face.

    Seymon was starved over a long period, weighing only 15lbs at the age of three when he died.

    A picture on his gravestone shows the boy with an injured nose from a wound inflicted by his parents.

    'His parents, instead of watching over him, simply insulted, humiliated and beat him,' said one court report.

    Alexander denied cruelty, claiming he wanted to 'educate' his son.

    As 'punishment' for soiling the floor the terrified boy was put in the bath and objects were thrown at him.

    Seymon eventually died on January 4 this year after the father kicked him on the head 'to make him sit on the floor'. The child fell 'showing no signs of life'.

    A post mortem found Semyon had eight other serious wounds inflicted by his parents.

    A paramedic doctor who confirmed Semyon's death, said: 'The boy was very thin, like a skeleton, covered in skin, looking like an African child with a big belly.

    'There was an abrasion on his head and a piece of hair was missing.'

    The child's eye socket was 'torn almost to the temple'.

    The couple had two more children together, both daughters, now aged four and one, and Anastasia had custody of the elder of two sons, 14 and 12, from a previous relationship.

    All are now in care and formal legal procedures are underway to deprive the couple of their parental rights.

    Anastasia has two older children, but the horrific child abuse was reserved for Semyon.

    Social services chief Galina Shaduro said the family was 'wealthy'.

    Both parents saw their elder daughter as a 'princess', while the youngest was also doted on.

    After Semyon died, mother Anastasia went to a shop and bought lollipops for her two other young children.

    The Belarus general prosecutor said the couple were motivated by 'personal hostility' against the boy. They aimed to kill him, said the prosecutor.

    'On the basis of personal hostility towards their obviously young son Semyon, with the aim of murder, they struck him in the presence of his younger brother with and hands and feet at least nine times, seven of which were to the head.

    'The defendants were aware that by inflicting multiple blows on the boy with significant force, including with booted feet, on the head, torso and limbs, they were causing his son prolonged physical pain, special torture and suffering.'

    In his 'last word' to the court, Alexander, a Belarus citizen who earlier worked at a clothing factory, said he regretted that his life 'turned out this way'.

    Alexander said he 'felt sorry that the last strike' on his son was 'too strong'.

    'There were no intentions, no conspiracies. I didn't want to kill, there were no such thoughts,' he said.

    His wife was condemned in one court report as a 'cheap actress who pretended to be a heartbroken mother during the final court session'.

    She had written a final speech to the court but refused to read it.

    He can appeal his sentence from Death Row, and seek a pardon from Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

    But such moves seldom change count decisions on executions.

    Those facing the death penalty are blindfolded and forced to kneel before being shot in the back of the head.

    The method is similar to that used in Stalin times in the USSR.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...d-Belarus.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

Page 5 of 5 FirstFirst ... 345

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 2 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 2 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •