Activists say Belarus hiding information on death penalties
RFE/RL with reporting by ITAR-TASS and Interfax 17 December 2013, 22:15
The Minsk regional court has said that a man it sentenced to death last month is a Moscow-born Belarusian national.
The Minsk-based Vyasna (Spring) human rights center said earlier on December 17 that a Russian citizen, Eduard Lykov, 53, had been sentenced to death by the court on November 26 for killing five people.
The coordinator of the Rights Defenders Against Capital Punishment in Belarus campaign, Andrey Paluda, told Vyasna on December 17 that the Lykov case was "obvious proof that the authorities in Belarus do not officially announce each case of the death penalty in the country."
Belarus is the only European country to still carry out executions. Minsk said it executed three people last year.
Lykov would join two other men who are currently on death row in Belarus.
