CLOSED: Belarus: Stop the execution of Vasily Yusepchuk

UPDATE: 13 OCTOBER 2009 - CLEMENCY DEADLINE PASSES FOR YUZEPCHUK
President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has allowed the deadline for clemency for Vasily Yuzepchuk to pass. On 12 October, the UN Human Rights Committee registered Vasily Yuzepchuk’s case and called on the Belarusian government not to execute Vasily Yuzepchuk while his case is under consideration by the Committee. Send an email to the Belarus authorities now

President Lukashenka has ignored calls for clemency from the international community, including the Council of Europe. Following the Supreme Court's 2 October rejection of Vasily Yuzepchuk’s appeal, President Lukashenka had 10 days in which to grant clemency. On 8 October local human rights activists sent a petition to the UN Human Rights Committee about the case. On 12 October the Committee requested that Belarus not carry out the sentence while it is considering the case.

Vasily Yuzepchuk was sentenced to death on 29 June, for the murder of six elderly women, following an investigation and trial which his lawyer argues were fundamentally flawed: he says that Vasily Yuzepchuk was beaten in detention to force him to confess.

Vasily Yuzepchuk belongs to the marginalized Roma ethnic group; originally from Ukraine, he does not have an internal passport, which is required for all citizens of Belarus. He may have an intellectual disability and according to his lawyer he is illiterate and does not know the months of the year.

Background information

In Belarus, condemned prisoners are given no warning that they are about to be executed, and they are usually executed within minutes of being told that their appeal for clemency has been rejected.

hey are first taken to a room where, in the presence of the Director of the detention facility, the Prosecutor and one other Ministry of Interior employee, they are told that their appeal for clemency has been turned down and that the sentence will be carried out. They are then taken to a neighbouring room where they are forced to their knees and shot in the back of the head.

Their families will only be informed days or sometimes weeks after the execution that their relative has been executed.

UPDATE: 13 OCTOBER 2009 - CLEMENCY DEADLINE PASSES FOR YUZEPCHUK
President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has allowed the deadline for clemency for Vasily Yuzepchuk to pass. On 12 October, the UN Human Rights Committee registered Vasily Yuzepchuk’s case and called on the Belarusian government not to execute Vasily Yuzepchuk while his case is under consideration by the Committee. Send an email to the Belarus authorities now

President Lukashenka has ignored calls for clemency from the international community, including the Council of Europe. Following the Supreme Court's 2 October rejection of Vasily Yuzepchuk’s appeal, President Lukashenka had 10 days in which to grant clemency. On 8 October local human rights activists sent a petition to the UN Human Rights Committee about the case. On 12 October the Committee requested that Belarus not carry out the sentence while it is considering the case.

Vasily Yuzepchuk was sentenced to death on 29 June, for the murder of six elderly women, following an investigation and trial which his lawyer argues were fundamentally flawed: he says that Vasily Yuzepchuk was beaten in detention to force him to confess.

Vasily Yuzepchuk belongs to the marginalized Roma ethnic group; originally from Ukraine, he does not have an internal passport, which is required for all citizens of Belarus. He may have an intellectual disability and according to his lawyer he is illiterate and does not know the months of the year.

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