The European Union once again urged Belarus to join a global moratorium on the death penalty

The EU condemned Belarusan authorities for execution of yet another capital punishment.

”We strongly condemn the recent execution of Hryhoriy Yuzepchuk, who was sentenced to death in April 2013. This is already the second execution of death penalty in Belarus this year.

 We are conscious of the serious nature of the crimes for which he was convicted. The European Union opposes capital punishment as it cannot be justified under any circumstances. The death penalty is a cruel and inhuman punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity”, is said in statement by the Spokesperson on the new sentence to death penalty in Belarus.

“We urge Belarus, the only country in Europe still applying capital punishment, to join a global moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards its universal abolition."

The 45-year-old Yuzepchuk, a Roma man born in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr province who was earlier convicted of killing three people, was sentenced to death on April 24, 2013. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal last August, BelaPAN informs.

As EuroBelarus Information Service earlier reported, on April 18, 2014 it became known that Pavel Sialiun, 23, former student of the Belarusian State University’s History Department, have been executed. The convict had been executed when his complaint was still pending before the UN Human Rights Committee. According to paragraph 92 of the Committee’s Rules of Procedure, the State should not execute a death sentence until the victim’s complaint is considered on the merits. Thus, Belarus has once again violated its international obligations, human rights defenders think.