Europe has once again called for abolition of death penalty in Belarus

Joint Declaration was published on the occasion of the World Day against Death Penalty; and the day before UN Special Rapporteur has urged Belarus to immediately introduce a moratorium on executions.

 Yesterday, on October 10, Joint Declaration by Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and Catherine Ashton, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on the European and World Day against the Death Penalty was published.  “The Council of Europe and the European Union regret the continuous use of death penalty in Belarus, the only country in Europe still applying it. We urge the authorities of Belarus to examine and explore all possibilities available in order to introduce a moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition”, - the declaration says.

Before that, in a statement on October 9, Miklos Haraszti, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, expressed disappointment regarding last month's Supreme Court ruling to uphold a death sentence handed to 23-year-old Pavel Selyun. Selyun was convicted of killing his wife and her lover in August 2012.Two other death sentences were handed down in Belarusian courts this year for murder charges. Five executions were held in the period 2010-12.

As RFE/RL reports, Haraszti said it was "unacceptable" that "non-transparent and politically guided courts hand down death-penalty sentences at the end of a procedure without guarantees of a fair trial."

He also described the lack of transparency and statistics on executions in Belarus as "deplorable."

At the same time recent poll indicates that the European Union`s efforts to put an end to the execution of prisoners in Belarus do not influence the views of the supporters or opponents of the death penalty in Belarus.

As many as 46.2 per cent of the residents of Belarus support the death penalty, while 44.5 per cent are opposed to it, Sergei Shimovolos, of the Moscow office of Penal Reform International (PRI), told on October 8 with reference to a recent poll, BelaPAN said . The poll was conducted between April and June 2013 by the Minsk-based Center of System Business Technologies SATIO at the request of the Moscow office of Penal Reform International.

A total of 36.2 per cent of those interviewed said that the authorities should not change their approach to the death penalty issue, while 10 per cent said that the death penalty should be applied more frequently, 16.6 per cent said that it should be immediately abolished, 15.5 per cent said that it should be gradually abolished, and 12.4 per cent called for a moratorium on the death penalty.

As many as 53.7 per cent described life imprisonment as a good alternative to the death penalty, while 42.1 per cent expressed the opposite view.

Opposition to the death penalty was more common among young people than among elderly people. As many as 33.9 per cent of those who professed religious belief and 46.8 per cent of those who described themselves as unbelievers said that they were in favour of capital punishment.

Twenty-two per cent of those interviewed in Minsk and 42 per cent of the respondents in the district capitals expressed support for the death penalty.

According to the poll, 10 per cent of the Belarusians believe that the death penalty has already been abolished; 7 per cent think that no one had been executed in the country for many years, and 5.5 per cent think that the government has declared a moratorium on the death penalty. As many 10.5 per cent of the respondents replied that they had nothing to say on the issue.

The poll suggests that high-income Belarusians have more confidence in the Belarusian judiciary than low-income people.

The poll shows that Minsk has the largest share of people ignorant of the real situation regarding the death penalty.

Belarus is the only country in Europe and the post-Soviet region where the death sentence remains a sentencing option and prisoners are executed. The Belarusian authorities have preserved the death penalty for "premeditated, aggravated murder" and 12 other peacetime offenses.

The death penalty was abolished thrice in Belarus since 1912 but was always restored. More than 80 per cent of those who took part in a 1996 national referendum reportedly voted against abolishing it. In 2006, the government enacted an amendment to the Criminal Code, which indicated the temporary nature of the use of the death penalty in Belarus. The European Union and many international organizations have long called on Belarus to declare a moratorium on the death penalty.