Condemning recent execution in Belarus, ODIHR Director repeats call for immediate moratorium on death penalty

WARSAW, 2 December 2016 – Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), today condemned the execution in Belarus of Siarhei Khmialeuski and repeated his past calls for the authorities to introduce an immediate moratorium on executions.

“The reports of the execution of Siarhei Kmialeuski are cause for serious alarm, as the continued imposition and carrying out of death sentences in Belarus runs directly counter to the growing international trend towards the abolition of this inherently cruel, inhuman and degrading form of punishment,” the ODIHR Director said. “Most OSCE participating States have already abolished the death penalty, and I urge the Belarus authorities to follow up on official discussions earlier this year and introduce a moratorium, as a first step towards abolishing the death penalty completely.

OSCE participating States have committed themselves to keep the question of abolishing capital punishment under consideration, and a conference organized by the Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus and the British Embassy in Minsk earlier this year focused specifically on this question.

Relatives of Kmialeuski reported that they arrived to visit him in prison on 29 November, only to be informed that he had been executed on an unknown date in recent weeks. This was the third execution reported to be carried out in Belarus in 2016.

“The secrecy surrounding the imposition of the death penalty itself constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of the condemned person and family members,” Director Link said. “But regardless of the manner in which it is carried out, the death penalty represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity.”

Annually, ODIHR publishes The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area: Background Paper, providing information on the status of the death penalty across the Organization’s 57 participating States. Belarus and the United States are the only OSCE participating States to maintain the death penalty in practice.