Voorzitter Raad van Europa Parlementaire Vergadering vraagt strafverlaging drie ter dood veroordeelden (en)

Press release - 849(2007)

PACE President calls to commute the death sentences of three sentenced in Belarus

Strasbourg, 28.11.2007 - Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President René van der Linden i today called on the authorities of Belarus to commute the death sentences of Syarhey Marozaw, Ihar Danchanka and Valerii Gorbatii, who were sentenced to death by shooting by the Supreme Court in 2006.

"I call on President Lukashenko to immediately commute the death sentences", the PACE President said. Recalling that death is not justice, he called on the President Lukashenko to call for a moratorium on executions in Belarus as a clear and firm step to bringing Belarus closer to the Council of Europe i.

"The death penalty has no legitimate place in the penal systems of modern civilised societies. Willingness to institute an immediate moratorium on executions, and to abolish the death penalty, is a precondition for accession to the Organisation", he said.

Belarus is not a member State of the 47 States Council of Europe. The Belarusian parliament's special guest status to the Parliamentary Assembly was suspended on 13 January 1997.

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