•  bratislava
• Tuesday, December 13, 2011
• Inter Press Service

A petition signed by 250,000 people calling for an end to capital punishment has been turned away by Belarussian authorities as the regime continues to harden its stance on the death penalty.

Just one year ago there was hope that a moratorium on capital punishment could be close as a parliamentary commission began discussing the issue. But just days after two men were sentenced to death, campaigners say a climate of fear now exists around official debate of the death penalty as President Alexander Lukashenka has moved to brutally crush any opposition to his regime since re- election at the end of last year.

One campaigner told IPS: 'We have been dealing with a partner in Belarus on a project to open public discussion of the death penalty, but they admit to a fear of being linked with it. There is anxiety among civil society.'

Belarus is the only country in Europe still executing people. There are no reliable official statistics available but rights groups estimate that as many as 400 people may have been put to death since Belarus became an independent state in 1991. Two men were executed earlier this year.

The former Soviet state has faced years of international condemnation over continued use of the death penalty. Critics attack not only the retention of the sentence itself but also raise concerns over the fairness of trials in Belarus, use of torture when confessions are made, and the mental health of those convicted.

The establishment of a parliamentary committee to discuss a moratorium on the death penalty last year had led to hopes that Belarus might agree relatively soon to end the use of capital punishment. But those hopes have been completely dashed in the past 12 months since Lukashenka’s re-election as he has launched blanket suppression of all rights groups.

Meanwhile, independent local media have reported that government politicians are too scared to even approach the subject in parliament for fear of upsetting Lukashenka. Heather McGill, a researcher with Amnesty International, told IPS: 'What has changed is probably the events of last December. There has been a big change in atmosphere and a very strong clampdown by Lukashenka.'

This clampdown has extended to harassment and persecution of rights activists in Belarus who have been involved in campaigning for an end to capital punishment.

A report by the UN Committee on Torture released last month raised grave concerns over the harassment of rights campiagners. Among other things it specifically identified figures in two leading human rights organisations, which work on issues linked to the death penalty, as having been targeted by the regime - the chair of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Aleh Gula, and the president of Viasna, Ales Byalyatski.

The dismissal of the petition, raised by Amnesty and Belarusian human rights organisations Viasna and the Belarus Helsinki Committee, comes just days after the sentencing to death of two men has refocused attention on Belarus’s use of capital punishment.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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