01/03/2011 Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Renate Wohlwend (Liechtenstein, EPP/CD), PACE rapporteur on abolition of the death penalty, is dismayed by the prospect of the imminent execution of two young men, Aleh Gryshkautsou, aged 29, and Andrei Burdyka, aged 28, convicted for murder during an armed robbery in 2009. A broadcast on national television on 22 February 2011 recalled that the sentence had come into force after the two men's appeals had been turned down.
“The execution of these two men would remove Belarus even further from the European consensus against the death penalty. The death penalty is an unacceptable violation of human rights, no matter what the crime.” says Renate Wohlwend. Her report on “The death penalty in Council of Europe member and observer states – an unacceptable violation of human rights” is due to be debated during the next session of the Parliamentary Assembly on 14 April 2011 in Strasbourg.