22 October 2023 :

The Minsk regional Court in Belarus on October 19, 2023 reportedly sentenced to death Alexander Taratuta, 48, for the murder of his three-year-old son Semyon.
Taratuta will be shot in the back of the head in Belarus, the only country in Europe to carry out capital punishment.  
His wife Anastasia Taratuta, 37, was sentenced to 25 years in a strict regime penal colony for the murder of Semyon.
The death penalty - by a state executioner - is not allowed for women in Belarus.
Both 'calmly listened to their sentences' while handcuffed in a glass court cage, reported Sputnik media.
Alexander constantly looked away from the camera as a judge handed down the verdict, while Anastasia was seen holding her hands over her face in the dock as her husband was condemned to death.
A court was told how the 'wealthy' couple inflicted a life of 'pure hell' on the boy.
Little Semyon was forced to sleep on bare linoleum and was often numb from the cold at their privately-owned home in Slutsk, 65 miles south of capital Minsk.
His mother - a Russian citizen - regularly punched Semyon in the face, and threw him at her husband or at the wall. She also dropped him into the bath.
The three-year-old was tied to a table leg, and at other times, his hands were tethered and food was dangled in front of his face.
Seymon was starved over a long period, weighing only 15lbs at the age of three when he died.
A picture on his gravestone shows the boy with an injured nose from a wound inflicted by his parents.
'His parents, instead of watching over him, simply insulted, humiliated and beat him,' said one court report.
Alexander denied cruelty, claiming he wanted to 'educate' his son.
As 'punishment' for soiling the floor the terrified boy was put in the bath and objects were thrown at him.
Seymon eventually died on January 4 this year after the father kicked him on the head 'to make him sit on the floor'. The child fell 'showing no signs of life'.
A post mortem found Semyon had eight other serious wounds inflicted by his parents.
The couple had two more children together, both daughters, now aged four and one, and Anastasia had custody of the elder of two sons, 14 and 12, from a previous relationship.
All are now in care and formal legal procedures are underway to deprive the couple of their parental rights.
Anastasia has two older children, but the horrific child abuse was reserved for Semyon.
Social services chief Galina Shaduro said the family was 'wealthy'.
Both parents saw their elder daughter as a 'princess', while the youngest was also doted on.
After Semyon died, mother Anastasia went to a shop and bought lollipops for her two other young children.
The Belarus general prosecutor said the couple were motivated by 'personal hostility' against the boy. They aimed to kill him, said the prosecutor.
'On the basis of personal hostility towards their obviously young son Semyon, with the aim of murder, they struck him in the presence of his younger brother with and hands and feet at least nine times, seven of which were to the head.
'The defendants were aware that by inflicting multiple blows on the boy with significant force, including with booted feet, on the head, torso and limbs, they were causing his son prolonged physical pain, special torture and suffering.'
In his 'last word' to the court, Alexander, a Belarus citizen who earlier worked at a clothing factory, said he regretted that his life 'turned out this way'.
Alexander said he 'felt sorry that the last strike' on his son was 'too strong'.
'There were no intentions, no conspiracies. I didn't want to kill, there were no such thoughts,' he said.
His wife was condemned in one court report as a 'cheap actress who pretended to be a heartbroken mother during the final court session'.
She had written a final speech to the court but refused to read it.
He can appeal his sentence from Death Row, and seek a pardon from Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
The EU on 19 October called on Belarus to introduce a moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a first step towards its full abolition, in line with the worldwide trend.
The call came after the Minsk regional Court reportedly sentenced to death Taratuta.
In a statement released by Peter Stano, Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the EU expressed “its sincere sympathy to the loved ones of the victim and all those affected by his deplorable and brutal crime”.
At the same time, the EU reaffirmed its unequivocal opposition to the death penalty in all cases and in all circumstances. 
“Capital punishment represents the ultimate denial of human dignity, fails to act as a deterrent to crime and makes miscarriages of justice irreversible,” says the press release.
“Belarus is the only country in Europe that still applies the death penalty.”