BELARUS: SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR SYARHEI KHMYALEUSKI

May 6, 2016: The Supreme Court of Belarus has upheld the death sentence passed in February 2016 upon Syarhei Khmyaleuski, a 31-year-old resident of Minsk district.
The man was charged with the murder of two or more persons, with particular cruelty for the purpose of concealing another crime or facilitating its commission.
Earlier, the accused man had been repeatedly tried – for theft, robbery, hooliganism, deliberate causing of less serious injuries, involving a minor in the commission of a crime and evading punishment of restraint of liberty. In total, he spent about 13 years in prison.
The criminal case was initiated in November 2014, after the charred bodies of 49-year-old local man and his 48-year-old concubine were found in a private house in Minsk region. The bodies had multiple stab wounds in the neck and head. Investigators concluded that the house was burnt in order to hide traces of the crime.
Leaving the scene of the crime, the accused met in the yard a 57-year-old fellow- villager. Wanting to get rid of the witness, he pushed him into the concrete pit two meters deep. As a result, the victim sustained numerous serious injuries, from which a few weeks later he died in hospital.
At first Khmyaleuski got a life sentence and the families of the murdered did not appeal against the verdict, but the prosecutor demanded to substitute life imprisonment for the death penalty, which was then affirmed by the court.
At today’s hearing judge Alena Dzyamko stressed that the defendant’s guilt was fully established. Syarhei Khmyaleuski has the right to file a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee.
The EU condemned the death sentence handed down on Mr Khmyaleuski and called on Belarus, the only country in Europe still applying capital punishment, to join a global moratorium as a first step towards the abolition of death penalty. (Sources: Belsat.eu, following naviny.by, 06/05/2016)