09/05/2016 Political Affairs and Democracy
Meritxell Mateu (Andorra, ALDE), general rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the abolition of the death penalty, and Andrea Rigoni (Italy, ALDE), PACE rapporteur on the situation in Belarus, strongly condemn another execution carried out in Belarus:
“We are shocked by the rapid execution of Syarhey Iwanow, despite the fact that his complaint was pending before the UN Human Rights Committee. Moreover, we deplore the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the death sentence of Sergei Khmelevsky.
These developments clearly show that there has been no progress towards the abolition of the death penalty, which is in clear contradiction with the values of the Council of Europe. Any progress in relations with our organisation will depend on the Belarussian authorities’ genuine commitment to abolish capital punishment, starting with the introduction of a moratorium on executions.”