Death Penalty Has no Place in Europe

Uladzislau Kavalyou and Dzmitry Kanavalau were recently executed, after having been denied reprieve by the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenka.

“Death penalty is an inhumane punishment that should not be applied in any country. The Belarusian legal system is controlled by the country’s regime and it seems that the two men were executed without a fair trial,” said Joanna Kurosz, Programme Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Civil Rights Defenders.

In November 2011 the two men were sentenced to death for the bombing of Minsk subway in April 2011, where 15 people were killed and 200 injured.

The trial has been criticized by Belarusian and foreign observers. UN Human Rights Committee called on Belarus to postpone the execution as many questions remained.

Belarus is the only country in Europe that applies the death penalty. According to Amnesty International, up to 400 executions were carried out since the country’s independence in 1991.