Death convict’s brother complains about the pressure in colony

Ryta Khmialeuskaya, the mother of two brothers, told the representative of the “Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty in Belarus” campaign about this fact. She said that her son Aliaksei, who is now in the correctional colony in Navasady (Barysaŭ district), was about to be transferred to a minimum security colony. However, after her older son was sentenced to the death penalty, Aliaksei has been accused of being the same, and a head of the colony doubted if it was right to mitigate the conditions of imprisonment.

The woman has learned all these recently from a phone conversation with her son.

“There they have major Fiodarau. Once my eldest son was convicted, he began to tell Aliaksei “you will be here until the end, because your brother has done this and you will do the same.” My son said that this major constantly rebukes him, saying that the same is going to happen to him, he is the same as his brother… But he has to do with all this? “- says Ms. Khmialeuskaya.

She also noted that she asked Aliaksei who is major Fiodarau on the colony: “My son says that this is not the chief of the colony.” The mother says that her son asked to make this fact public, so the administration of the colony could learn about Fiodarau’s activities.

The conference on the death penalty – will there be a result?
Meanwhile, on 10 March an international conference on the death penalty in Belarus was hosted in Minsk.The event was organized by the UN Office in Belarus, with the financial support of the British Embassy. The PACE rapporteur on Belarus Andrea Rigoni, The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic Karel Schwarzenberg , the UK Ambassador to Belarus Ms Fionna Gibb, UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus Sanaka Samarasinha and a number of foreign experts were among the participants of the conference.

Stavros Lambrinidis, EU Special Representative for Human Rights, expressed hope that Belarus will soon be among the countries that have introduced a moratorium or even abandoned the use of the capital punishment.

“Most countries have already abolished the death penalty,” Mr. Lambrinidis said. “The number of abolitionist countries has increased from nine in 1965 to 16 in 1978 and more than 150 in 2016.” Mr. Lambrinidis noted that Belarus was still applying the death penalty while 28 other European countries had already stopped executing prisoners.

Mr. Lambrinidis stressed that the availability of the death penalty as a sentencing option was not due to political and cultural factors. There are many differences between Iran and the United States, for example, but both countries have capital punishment, he said.

“I understand the anger of people who say, what other punishment could be used fo the one who killed or raped a young child. Well, let’s put the question of the criminal’s dignity aside. But I want to ask, where is our dignity? I will not let the killer to turn me into a killer. These are the obligation of the civilized countries – to be above the revenge and the principle of “an eye for an eye”, – said Lambrinidis.

Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Valiantsin Rybakou said at the event that the majority of the population still supported the retention of the death penalty.

“As we all know, that the majority of Belarusian citizens voted in favor retaining the death penalty in the referendum in 1996. And numerous opinion polls that have been conducted since then show that the death penalty is still perceived differently in society and there is still a majority of its supporters. We cannot ignore this fact, including in the context of our dialogue with our European partners,” said Rybakou.