All news

France urges Belarus to impose moratorium on death penalty

A campaign is underway in and outside Belarus to collect signatures against capital punishment of the belarusian terrorists

PARIS, December 1 (Itar-Tass) — France has urged the Belarussian authorities to impose a moratorium on death penalty, thus reacting to the decision of the Belarussian Supreme Court that on Wednesday sentenced two young men to capital punishment on charges of committing a terrorist attack on the Minsk subway in April, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said on Thursday.

“Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalev must be executed upon the decision of the Belarussian court. In this connection France once again reminds that it is against capital punishment irrespective of its venue and the circumstances (of the sentence),” he stressed.

“The republic urges the Belarussian authorities to impose the moratorium to abolish death penalty,” Valero stressed.

The sentence of the Belarussian Supreme Court is not subject to appeal. A campaign is underway in and outside Belarus to collect signatures against capital punishment of the “Belarusian terrorists.”

The mother of one of the two young men, Kovaleva, has appealed to the Belarusian president to refrain from giving death penalty. Belarusian human rights activists called for an additional investigation, saying the judicial system is not guaranteed from mistakes and the trial “was not clear and convincing”.

A bomb explosion on the Minsk subway on April 11 killed 15 and wounded more than 200 people, including three Russian nationals.