Belarus starts campaign on abolition of death penalty

Last Updated: Monday, November 30, 2009, 12:28

Tags: Alexander Lukashenko, Death penalty, Belarus

Belarus starts campaign on abolition of death penalty

Minsk: Belarus will soon launch an information campaign to press for the abolition of death penalty, President Alexander Lukashenko said.

"We will hold parliamentary hearings and discuss the issue in the media. The people will decide whether death penalty should be abolished or not," Lukashenko told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

The overwhelming majority of Belarusian citizens supported death penalty in a referendum in 1996, Lukashenko said.

Only a new referendum can change things, he noted.

"If we hold a new referendum right now, it will have the same results as the previous one," Lukashenko said.

PTI

First Published: Monday, November 30, 2009, 12:28

Comments

Craig - United Kingdom
belarus is the last remaining country in europe to still use ution as a form of punishment for crime (except latvia in times of war).
utions in belarus have become much rarer in recent years with no utions in 2009 and only 2 in 2010.
two retentionist nations, japan and mongolia also announced moratoriums on capital punishment in 2009, i think belarus will follow the global trend and abolish the death penalty for all offences.