Henadz Yakavitski’s family members provided to Andrei Paluda, the coordinator of the campaign “Human rights defenders against death penalty in Belarus”, a document from the Minsk Regional Court, which confirms this information: “We inform you that under the verdict of the Minsk Regional Court of 5 January 2016 your father Henadz Yakavitski sentenced under Part 3, Article 174, para. 6, 16, Part 2, Article 139 of the Criminal Code to capital punishment — the death penalty — came into force on 8 April 2016 and was executed on 5 November 2016.”
Ivan Kulesh was found guilty of three murders, theft, robbery and attempted murder. Some mitigating factors were recognized: Ivan had a minor child, also he made an acknowledgement of guilt and voluntary surrendered himself. Aggravating factor was the state of alcoholic intoxication at the time of committing the crime and also the fact that Ivan committed crimes before. Some inconsistencies between the defendant’s testimony and the investigation materials have been attributed to the fact that at the time of committing the crime Kulesh was drunk and the crimes were committed a quite long time ago.
Relatives of another convict Siarhei Khmialeuski reported on 29th November to Andrei Paluda, the coordinator of the campaign “Human rights defenders against death penalty in Belarus”, that death sentence of their relative was enforced.
“The relatives of Siarhei Khmialeuski had not received any letters from him for more than a month. However, last week the relatives brought some money for him and the jail staff took it. Today, they went to see him and they were told that the sentence had been carried out.In addition, for a month already, there have been no letters from another death convict, Henadz Yakavitski. So far, we have no information about his fate,” said human rights defender.
Meanwhile, on August 3 the UN Human Rights Committee confirmed the registration of an individual communication submitted by Khmialeuski and asked the Belarusian authorities to postpone his execution, while his case was pending before the Committee.
Siarhei Khmialeuski, 31, was sentenced to death by the Minsk regional court for the brutal murder of three persons. The heavy sentence was imposed after a review of the criminal case, in which he was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment.
International organization Amnesty International defended Siarhei Khmialeuski and issued an urgent appeal asking President Lukashenka to put an end to executions in Belarus.
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