Belarus’ House of Representatives adopts bill introducing death penalty for government officials and servicemen for high treason in first reading

Deputies of the House of Representatives of Belarus’ National Assembly have adopted a bill “On amending the Сriminal Liability Code” in the first reading; the bill introduces capital punishment for government officials and servicemen for high treason, the press service of the house reports.

“The bill proposes amending a sanction in part 2 of article 356 of the Criminal Code, stipulating the possibility of using an exceptional punishment in the form of death penalty for high treason committed by an official holding a public post or an individual holding the status of a serviceman,” the corresponding message reads.

Currently, this article stipulates a punishment in the form of up to 20 years of imprisonment “with or without a fine”.

The bill also introduces a new article on responsibility for spreading “fake news” about the Belarusian army and its law enforcement agencies.

In May, Belarus’ Parliament adopted a bill expanding the grounds for use of death penalty. According to the introduced amendments, capital punishment can be used if a person is found guilty of committing an act of terrorism, attempting to assassinate a representative of a foreign nation or an international organisation “with the goal of provoking international issues or war”, or attempting to assassinate a government or public official “with the goal of influencing the decisions made by authorities, terrorising the population, destabilising public order”.

Belarus is the only country in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States in which death penalty is still allowed and practiced. Currently, according to the Belarusian Criminal Code, death penalty can be appointed as a punishment, in particular, for starting and conducting an aggressive war, international terrorism, genocide, using weapons of mass destruction, high treason connected to murder, and murder of a law enforcement agent.

Alyaksandar Lukashenka openly supports capital punishment, referring to it as a “restraining factor”. Due to the absence of a moratorium on capital punishment, Belarus is not a member of the Council of Europe, and its citizens are not able to file complaints in the European Court of Human Rights.