The spokesperson of the European External Action Service denounced the Belarusian National Assembly’s approval in the evening of Friday 29 April of an amendment to the Criminal Code introducing the death penalty for “ attempted acts of terrorism”.
This amendment “gives the possibility for further serious abuse”, he said in a statement.
According to the spokesperson, 36 political prisoners have been charged or sentenced to long prison terms under the Code’s ‘terrorism’ provisions. Many representatives of democratic forces and political activists are wanted on ‘terrorism’ charges, and many defendants are tried in “secret, unfair and biased trials, often under fabricated charges and with no legal safeguards”. “Now they also risk the death penalty”, he said.
The spokesperson recalled that the current political context in Belarus made this development even more worrying.
He further recalled that the death penalty violates the inalienable right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)