Council of Europe Condemns Executions in Belarus

07.02.2008. Tags: capital punishment.
Source: Charter`97.

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis has made a special statement condemning execution of three members of a gang: Siarhei Marozau, and his close associates, Valery Harbaty and Ihar Danchanka.

‘I am upset by an insistent intention of the Belarusian authorities to isolate their country from Europe’, Terry Davis noted. ‘By these death sentences they seem to be proud of defying human values common for other European countries’, Radio Liberty quotes Terry Davis as saying.

Mr. Davis wrote that Belarus is not a member of the Council of Europe, in which country-members death penalty is abolished, but Belarus is a member of the UN. Carrying out the execution to three citizens of Belarus contradicts the spirit and letter of the recent ruling of the UN General Assembly, which urged to impose an international moratorium on executions.

Recently a death sentence, handed down to three leaders of the Marozau’s criminal ring, found guilty of committing 15 murders and of extortion, rape and robberies, has been carried out in Belarus. BelaPAN has been informed about that by the press-secretary of the court Anastasiya Tsimanovich.

Earlier the Supreme Court sentenced S.Marozau and I.Danchanka to capital punishment, death by shooting, in December 2006 and October 2007. Valery Harbaty was sentenced to death in December 2006.

A Homel-based lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity told BelaPAN that a death certificate for Siarhei Marozau arrived in the Chyhunachny district registry office in Homel the previous week.