Belarus is the only country in Europe that uses capital punishment. As of 2025, it remains a legal penalty, with at least one execution confirmed in 2022 and a death sentence issued in 2024. The death penalty has remained part of Belarusian law since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The constitution permits the death penalty for "especially grave crimes". The list of capital offenses was expanded in 2023 to include high treason.

In a 1996 referendum, 80% of Belarusians voted to keep the punishment, and the Belarusian government says that this can be overturned only via another vote. The use of the death penalty and its methods were criticized by the United Nations. It is one of the reasons Belarus is excluded from the Council of Europe.

History

The Belarusian Democratic Republic, as the first Belarusian state, was too short-lived to establish a codified legal system.

Belarusian SSR

Until 1928, Belarus used the Russian legal code. Its own 1928 criminal code introduced the death penalty for 38 crimes and described it as a temporary measure. Of these 38 offenses, only two were crimes against individuals: armed robbery and murder by a serviceman. Pregnant women and individuals under 18 were exempt from the punishment. A 1935 decree, effective until 1959, lowered the age limit for execution to 12.

During the Great Purge, between 1935 and 1940, over 35,000 people were executed, including 370 members of the literary intelligentsia. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 were executed by the NKVD in prisons located in territories annexed after 1939.

In 1947, capital punishment was abolished, and was reintroduced in 1950 for spies and traitors, and then in 1954 for aggravated murder. In 1962, the death penalty was extended to bribery, and in 1965, the Presidium allowed its retroactive application to war criminals. Later, the list of capital offenses was expanded to include crimes such as currency speculation.

A 1987 case involved an individual sentenced to death who was subsequently acquitted after spending nearly 15 years in prison. During the investigation of serial killer Gennady Mikhasevich, an innocent man was wrongfully convicted and executed.

Republic of Belarus

After becoming independent, Belarus began to limit the use of the death penalty. In 1993, the list of capital crimes was reduced by eliminating economic crimes. Exemptions from the death penalty were introduced for women by 1994, followed by individuals over 65 in 2001. In 1997, life imprisonment was introduced as an alternative form of punishment. However, a presidential decree in the same year expanded the list of capital offenses to include terrorism.

A new criminal code adopted in 1999 reduced the number of capital crimes from 29 to 14. In October 2005, the parliament adopted an amendment to the Criminal Code declaring that the use of the death penalty was on a temporary basis only.Belarus amends criminal code Interfax on October 26, 2005, accessed on May 28, 2006.

Lukashenko put forth the idea of another death penalty referendum in 2021. In December 2022, the parliament passed legislation that punishes high treason among officials and military personnel with the death penalty. Lukashenko signed this bill into law in March 2023.

Legislation Article 24 of the Constitution of Belarus states that:

As per the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, capital punishment can be imposed for the following acts:

War crimes Terrorism Crimes against humanity Aggravated murder Treason by an official or serviceman Sabotage by an organised group, or causing death or other severe consequences

Capital punishment may be imposed for preparation or attempted terrorism, but not for other crimes.

Capital punishment cannot be imposed on individuals under 18 years of age, those over 65, or on women. When a mental disorder is diagnosed that deprives the condemned person of the ability to understand their actions, the death penalty is not executed.

The death penalty is not applied if a pre-trial cooperation agreement is reached. The Prosecutor General must review petitions for these agreements.

Should the statute of limitations for the crime of a person sentenced to death expire, the court shall review the case. If the court does not find grounds to acquit the individual, the death penalty shall be commuted to imprisonment.

Death penalty criminal cases are presided over at first instance by a panel of one judge and two people's assessors, chosen from the general population. The death penalty can only be imposed on a defendant found guilty by a unanimous decision of all judges.

Executions are carried out non-publicly by shooting. Each condemned person is executed separately.

A prosecutor, a representative of the correctional facility, and a medical professional must be present at the execution. The medical professional confirms the death of the condemned.

After an execution, the facility administration notifies the sentencing court, which informs one of the deceased's close relatives. The body is not released for burial, and the burial place is not disclosed, a practice the UNHRC believes violates Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and which the OSCE considers a violation of the Copenhagen Declaration, to both of which Belarus is a signatory.

The president may commute a death sentence to life imprisonment.

In 2004, the Constitutional Court of Belarus ruled that the President or the National Assembly could suspend or abolish the death penalty without a new referendum.Judgment of the Constitutional Court of March 11, 2004 On the conformity between the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, the international treaties to which the Republic of Belarus is a party and the provisions of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus stipulating application of the death penalty as a punishment, accessed on May 28, 2006. This interpretation was supported in 2010 by the Court's Head and is also shared by the Council of Europe.

Procedure

In Belarus, prisoners sentenced to death are transferred to Minsk Detention Center No. 1 in the capital.

The execution is carried out by a member of the "committee for the execution of sentences," which also determines the execution site. According to Oleg Alkayev's book The Death Squad, on the day of execution the convict is transported to a secret location and informed that all appeals have been rejected. He is then blindfolded and taken to a nearby room. There two staffers force him to kneel in front of a bullet backstop. The executioner then shoots the convict in the back of his head with a PB-9 pistol equipped with a suppressor. Alkayev states that "The whole procedure, starting with the announcement about denied appeals and ending with the gunshot, lasts no longer than two minutes."

Following the execution, a prison doctor and other officials certify the death, and a death certificate is prepared. The remains of the executed are buried secretly, and the family is subsequently notified.

Statistics Official data on the statistics of death penalty application in Belarus is a state secret. Information is compiled and made public by human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Viasna. These organizations gather their data through occasional government disclosures, case-by-case analysis of public media reports, and information received directly from the relatives of executed individuals. The number of executions actually carried out are particularly difficult to obtain.

For the Belarusian SSR, data on death sentences is available starting from 1985.

+ Death sentences in Belarusian SSR 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 21 10 12 12 5 20

For independent Belarus, multiple estimates exist regarding the number of death sentences.

+ Death sentences in Belarus 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 21 24 20 24 37 29 46 47 13 4 7 4 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 4 2 2 9 4 2 2 2 3 0 4 0 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2 4 4 2 3 3 0 0 1 1 While the last confirmed execution took place in 2022, the Supreme Court rejected a death row inmate's appeal in January 2024. As of Spring 2025, no further information regarding his fate has been released.

Death sentences can be commuted either by a decision from a higher court or through a Presidential pardon; both methods are rarely utilized. In 2012, President Lukashenko said he had pardoned only one man during his entire presidency up to that point. Since then, there are three other known cases of pardons, including Rico Krieger as part of the 2024 Ankara prisoner exchange. There have been instances where prosecutors successfully petitioned for a reconsideration of a case, resulting in the imposition of a death sentence.

Typically, there is roughly a one-year gap between the issuance of a death sentence and its execution. The overwhelming majority of individuals executed are convicted of murder. However, those responsible for the 2011 Minsk Metro bombing and Rico Krieger in 2024 were sentenced for terrorism.

Public opinion In a 1996 referendum one of the seven questions addressed the abolition of the death penalty. The results showed that 80.44% of Belarusians opposed its abolition.

In 2000, 65% of Belarusians supported capital punishment. By 2010, support for retaining it was 48.2%, with 39.2% favoring abolition. In 2013, 46% of Belarusians supported the death penalty, while 44% advocated for its gradual abolition. A 2017 poll conducted by a think tank associated with Lukashenko reported 60% support for the death penalty. Of those polled, 31% supported abolition, which included 18% who favored complete abolition. Support continued into 2020, with 63% of Belarusians backing the death penalty. In 2021, the Head of the Sociology Institute of NASB claimed on state TV that only 7% of the population supported its abolition.

International reactions

The Council of Europe urged Belarus to implement a moratorium on the death penalty as a prerequisite for its membership. This position dates back to at least 2001, when European Council suggested that Belarus abolish capital punishment before seeking Council membership. Belarus's continued non-compliance led to the suspension of high-level contacts between Belarus and the PACE in 2010. The EU has similarly and repeatedly endorsed a moratorium.

In 2022, the UNHRC condemned Belarus for executing a person whose case was under Committee consideration, a breach of the Optional Protocol, which Belarus had accepted in 1992. Since 2007, Belarus has abstained from biennial UN General Assembly votes on a death penalty moratorium.

In 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized Belarus's expanded death penalty scope, fearing its use to intimidate political opposition.

The UK Foreign Office criticized Belarus's use of the death penalty after the 2011 Minsk bombings' perpetrators were executed. In 2018, the German Foreign Office also called for an immediate moratorium.

In 2012, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the decision on capital punishment was a sovereign matter for each state. He acknowledged that Belarus's eventual accession to the Council of Europe, which would require abolishing the death penalty, was in Russia's interest.

In 2019, then-Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said that public sentiment in Belarus favored capital punishment, but the government was working toward changing that. In 2022, after the Council of Europe suspended cooperation, Belarus's MFA claimed this jeopardized constructive dialogue on the death penalty. President Lukashenko, in 2013, called the death penalty "not good" but "necessary in some cases." In 2018, he contrasted European concerns with the lack of such conditions from Russia and China.

Further reading

Notes

References

External links Interview with Oleg Alkaev, former head of Belarus's death row