Aleh Hryshkawtsow, 29, and Andrey Burdyka, 28, reportedly executed in Belarus

Belarus President Lukashenka

July 21, 2011: Aleh Hryshkawtsow, 30, and Andrey Burdyka, 29, were executed by shooting in Belarus, reported the Hrodna newspaper Vecherny Grodno.

The pair were sentenced to death for murder by the Hrodna Regional Court on May 14, 2010.

Aleh Hryshkawtsow and Andrei Burdyka were sentenced to death by shooting for crimes committed during an armed robbery on a flat in Grodno in October 2009. Both men were found guilty of premeditated murder, armed assault, arson, kidnapping of a minor, theft and robbery. Aleh Hryshkawtsow and Andrei Burdyka have not denied the charges. On 17 September 2010, the Supreme Court in Minsk turned down their appeals.

The families of the two men only learnt that President Lukashenka had refused their requests for clemency after the news was broadcast on national television on 22 February.

Belarus carried out two executions in 2010. Vasily Yuzepchuk and Andrei Zhuk, were executed in March 2010, approximately two months after their clemency applications had been turned down. As in all death penalty cases in Belarus, neither the prisoners nor their relatives were informed of the date in advance. Andrei Zhuk’s mother only learnt of her son’s execution afterwards when she tried to deliver a food parcel on 19 March.

Sources: Naviny.by, Amnesty International, July 21, 2011

Feb 27, 2011

February 25, 2011: Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenko rejected clemency requests from death row inmates Aleh Hryshkawtsow, 29, and Andrey Burdyka, 28, according to Belarusian human right defenders. They were were sentenced to ...

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