29 November 2018 :

Belarus has executed in recent days two convicted murderers, the human rights group Vyasna (Spring) said.
Vyasna cited the mother of Ihar Hershankou as saying on November 28 that she had been officially informed that the death penalty imposed on her son had been carried out.
A day earlier, Vyasna cited relatives of Syamyon Berazhny as saying that they had been informed that the 31-year-old had been executed by shooting.
Berazhny, Hershankou, and two co-defendants were convicted of murder and kidnapping in July 2017, after investigators said they were members of a gang that killed elderly homeowners in order to acquire their apartments or houses.
Berazhny and one of his co-defendants, Ihar Hershankou, were sentenced to death and the other two were sentenced to 22 and 24 years in prison.
In June, the Supreme Court suspended the implementation of the death sentences against Berazhny and Hershankou amid calls by rights organizations not to execute the men.

31 May 2018 :

The Supreme Court upheld the death sentences earlier handed down to Aliaksandr Zhylnikau and Viachaslau Sukharko for the murder of three people. The judgment was pronounced after the court completed hearing Zhylnikau’s appeal, while Sukharko refused to challenge the verdict.
During the hearing, Aliaksandr Zhylnikau requested a new medical-forensic examination, which, in his opinion, could confirm his innocence to two counts of murder. However, the panel of judges saw no reason to meet the request.
The convict’s lawyers argued that their client was not involved in the commission of the crimes, but was aware of the fact and helped Sukharko “overcome their consequences.” His guilt was not established on the basis of proven facts, but merely on the basis of the judges’ assumptions, the defense said.
Liudmila Kozak, Zhylnikau’s defense lawyer, stressed that the investigation and the subsequent trials violated her client’s rights as enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: the right to life, the right not to be subjected to degrading treatment, the right to physical integrity, as well as the right to a fair trial. In her opinion, the retrial of the case by the Minsk City Court, in fact, duplicated the Supreme Court’s decision, which found the sentence of life imprisonment to be too mild for the convict. According to Kozak, the judges of the Minsk City Court actually sided with the prosecution.
Four men are currently held on death row awaiting execution: Viachaslau Sukharko, Aliaksandr Zhylnikau, as well as Siamion Berazhnoi and Ihar Hershankou, whose death sentences were confirmed by the Supreme Court in December 2017.

07 March 2018 :

A Minsk-based human rights group says that more than four months ago Belarusian authorities executed a man who had been convicted of killing his own children.
The Vyasna (Spring) human rights center quoted the mother of the convicted man, Kiryl Kazachok, as saying that she was only informed in recent days that he was executed in October.
Amnesty International in January had mentioned Kazachok's case in a statement urging Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to abolish capital punishment.
Kazachok was sentenced to death in December 2016 after a court in the southeastern city of Homel found him guilty of killing his 17-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter in order to punish his wife for wanting a divorce.
The court found that Kazachok was drunk when he carried out the killings.
Kazachok refused to appeal the sentence.

23 January 2018 :

Minsk City Court sentenced two persons to death after a retrial.
Vyachaslau Sukharko and Alyaksandr Zhylnikau were found guilty of murdering three people in December 2015. One more defendant in the case, Alina Shulhanava, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Sawmill workers Sukharko and Zhylnikau were accused of murdering three people, robbery and stealing documents.
Alina Shulhanava, a nursery school teacher and former employee at the state-controlled youth organization BRSM, was charged with the organisation of causing a grievous bodily harm, which resulted in death, and preparation for abducting a person.
The charges stem from two episodes that took place in December 2015 in Minsk.
27-year Alina Shulhanava failed to come to terms with the fact that her ex-boyfriend was dating another woman. Shulhanava hired Vyachaslau Sukharko and Alyaksandr Zhylnikau to threaten and beat the couple. However, the perpetrators went a bridge too far and killed the both.
Immediately after their arrest, it became known that Sukharko and Zhylnikau were involved in another murder in the town of Kalodzishchy near Minsk. A 59-year-old man who let an apartment to one of the defendants turned out to be another victim.
On 6 March 2017, the Minsk City Court sentenced the two men to life imprisonment. However, on July 14, the Supreme Court sent the case for retrial.
All the defendants did not accept the verdict. During the hearing in the Supreme Court Sukharko asked to replace his life term with execution, while Zhylnikau and Shulhanava asked for the mitigation of the sentences.

15 June 2018 :

June 15, 2018 - Belarus Suspends Two Death Sentences, Rights Group Says. The Supreme Court of Belarus has suspended two death sentences, the Minsk-based Viasna Human Rights Centre says. Viasna cites relatives of Ihar Hershankou (Ihar Hershankow) and Syamyon Berazhnoy (Syamyon Berazhny) as saying that the court has suspended the implementation of the two men's death sentences while their appeals are being considered. In a June 14 statement, Viasna lawyer Paval Sapelka said the appeals offers a possibility that the sentence be commuted. Appeals usually take at least one month to consider. Earlier in January, Amnesty International raised concerns about Hershankou and Berazhnoy, saying their executions were imminent after the Supreme Court upheld their sentences in December. In July 2017 (see 22/07/2017), the two men were found guilty of murder and kidnapping, after an investigation established that they were part of a gang that killed old home-owners in order to acquire their properties. Belarus remains the only country in Europe and Central Asia to carry out the death penalty. According to rights organizations, more than 400 people have been sentenced to death in Belarus since it gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. (Source: rferl.org, 15/06/2018)

31 January 2018 :

Belarusian courts handed down five death sentences and three life sentences in 2017, Belarusian Supreme Court First Deputy Chairman Valery Kalinkovich said.
“Five [people] received death sentences and three people received life sentences [in 2017],” Kalinkovich said at a press conference in Minsk on Jan. 31 in response to a question from journalists.
It should be taken into account that a life sentence is an alternative to the death penalty, he said. “We have two measures of extraordinary punishment: life in prison and the death penalty,” he said.