Updated at 14:27,16-12-2024

Belarus imposes third death sentence of 2013

RFE/RL

A court in the southeastern Belarusian city of Homel has handed down the country's third death sentence this year.

The court convicted and sentenced a 25-year-old man on June 14 for murder.

On June 12, a court in the western city of Hrodna sentenced a 23-year-old suspect to death.

He was convicted for a premeditated double murder.

In April, a man was sentenced to death in the eastern city of Mahileu for murdering his prison cellmate while serving a sentence for previous crimes.

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly criticized Minsk then for issuing the first death sentence in Belarus since the execution of the two men convicted of the Minsk metro bombing in 2012.

Belarus remains the only European country that still uses the death penalty.