17/05/2010 President
Strasbourg, 17.05.2010 - Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Chair Antonio Miloshoski, and Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly President Mevlüt Çavusoglu today called on the authorities of Belarus to commute the death sentences of Andrei Burdyko and Oleg Grishkovtsov who have just been sentenced to death by the Court of the Grodno region.
“We call on President Lukashenko to immediately commute the two death sentences, to declare forthwith a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, and to commute the sentences of all prisoners sentenced to death to terms of imprisonment as a firm step to bring the country closer to the Council of Europe.
The death penalty has no place in the penal systems of today’s societies. Willingness to institute an immediate moratorium on executions, and to abolish the death penalty, is a precondition for accession to the Organisation”, they said.
Belarus is not a member State of the Council of Europe. Belarusian parliament's special guest status to the Parliamentary Assembly was suspended on 13 January 1997, and Belarus' request for membership of the Council of Europe was frozen the following year.