Why Belarus retains death penalty

On June 27 at the session of PACE Belarusan authorities made it clear that Belarus would not abolish death penalty, writes Ryhor Astapenia.

Western demands to impose moratorium seem to follow a certain ritual without any realistic expectations.

Belarus remains the only country in Europe and on the territory of the former Soviet Union which still uses death penalty. The data provided by the Interior Ministry state that Belarusan courts sentenced 102 people to death between 1998 and 2010. The death penalty procedure remains so secret that the authorities do not even return the bodies of the executed. Several years ago two death convicts hanged themselves in the cell in order to avoid shooting, so that the authorities would give their bodies to their families. 

On the one hand, the idea of death penalty as a fair punishment remains quite popular in Belarus. On the other hand, the position of religious institutions and human rights defenders becomes more noticeable in the society. The recent speech of head of the Belarusan Orthodox Christians Filaret for the death penalty abolishment has become a considerable event in Belarus. 

How does death penalty look like?

Shooting remains the form of death penalty execution in Belarus. Most of the executed are criminals that committed crimes with aggravating circumstances. The aggravating circumstances usually mean homicides of children or elderly people, pregnant women or homicides with rape. The authorities shoot from two to nine people annually - much less than in 1990s.

Whether to sentence someone to capital punishment depends on a concrete judge. Andrei Zhuk, executed for a cruel homicide, wrote to his mother that the court sentenced one person for the similar crime to 25 years of imprisonment, another one – to life-time imprisonment, and him – to death.

Very often, about a year passes since the verdict until the actual execution. Aleh Alkayeu, former head of Minsk pre-trial detention centre and death sentences executor, describes the procedure of shootings in Belarus in details in his book “The Shooting Team”.

The Commission consisting of a Public Prosecutor, a Head of a detention centre and an Interior Ministry’s representative calls the death convict to the office. In the office, the Commission informs about the rejection of the convict’s pardon appeal, then policemen put a black bandage on his eyes and lead him to the next office. There, the executor brings the convict to his knees and shoots him in the back of the head. The whole procedure takes about two minutes.

The authorities never give bodies of the executed to their relatives or inform the place of burying. Often, the relatives of the executed go around Minsk cemeteries in order to find fresh graves there, after getting the letters with information that the convict was dead. It gives no results. Relatives of one of the executed buried his personal belongings instead of the body and put a tomb stone just to have a place to commemorate the dead.

The UN Human Rights Committee demanded that the Belarusan authorities should give the bodies of the death convicts to their families several times. However, the authorities continue to ignore these demands.

The attitude of the society

Death penalty has remained an issue of little importance for the Belarusan society for many years. The problem of shootings in Belarus proceeded to the national level only once, after the execution of Dzmitry Kanavalau and Uladzislau Kavalyou. The court sentenced them both to death for the blast in Minsk metro on 11 April 2011, which took the lives of 15 people.

According to the data provided by the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies, 37% of Belarusan population did not believe in the convicts’ guilt. This caused a wave of moods for abolition of death penalty in the society. According to IISEPS, since September 2012, 40,7% Belarusans stand for abolition of death penalty, while 49,1% want to preserve it.

Human rights defenders and intellectuals stand for the death penalty abolition in the first place. The Catholic Church and the Belarusan Orthodox Church raise their voices against the authorities’ policy very rarely, however, as for this issue, both denominations pursue the death penalty abolition.

However, the Belarusan society still sticks to the idea that the death penalty should remain. Moreover, the Belarusan authorities have some instruments of the informational influence over the people. When the state media systematically show the pictures of cruel murders, it raises the pro-death penalty moods automatically.

When Belarusan TV-viewers see Anders Breivik sitting in a leather arm-chair smiling, they think it is not Belarus that should abolish death penalty - it’s Europe that should introduce it. In such conditions, the Belarusan society sees the attempts of human rights defenders to stop the death penalty as a step of solidarity with murderers, not as an act of humanity.

Will Belarus abolish death penalty?

The European Union has been trying to convince Belarus to abolish death penalty for a long time. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe set introduction of a moratorium as the only condition for returning the status of specially invited to Belarus. Belarus lost this status in 1996, when the referendum made the death penalty legal. The West did not recognise the results of that referendum.

Belarus shows no reaction to the demands of the European structures so far. The officials often say privately that “Let the EU and the Council of Europe teach the U.S. some humanity, and then demand something from Belarus”.

Although as the chart above shows, the number of executions has dropped significantly since 1990s, Alexander Lukashenka personally often said he would not go for introduction of the moratorium as most Belarusans would object. Also, the Belarusan leader has no plans to become a member of the Council of Europe, as it would bring no major benefits for his regime. If Lukashenka wants to mend the relations with the West, he would release political prisoners and it would be enough.

Neither the Belarusan authorities nor the society seem ready for the death penalty abolition. It may take a while before Belarus will stop being the only country in Europe using death penalty. 

BelarusDigest