FEATURED POST

Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

Published
Image
Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

Belarusian President Refuses To Pardon Subway Bombers

Published
Dmitry Konovalov
and Vladislav Kovalyov 
MINSK, March 15 (Bernama) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has refused to pardon two men sentenced to death for a deadly bomb attack that killed 15 and injured more than 200 others at a metro station in Minsk last April.

This decision was reasoned by the "sole risk and severity of the consequences to society of the committed crimes," Xinhua news agency quoted a news report shown on Belarus state television yesterday evening.

State television said the men -- Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov -- could be executed anytime.

The court found Konovalov had built the explosive device and brought it to the subway station before detonating it. Kovalyov was aware of Konovalov's plan but failed to report it.

Human rights activists had urged Belarus not to impose the death penalty in the case.

Belarus is the only European country with the death penalty still on its books.

Source: Bernama, March 15, 2012

Related articles:
Death Penalty News: Belarus: Fight Against Death Penalty Gets ...
Dec 12, 2011
Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov were sentenced to be shot by firing squad for a bomb attack in the Minsk subway in April 2011 that killed 15 people and wounded around 200 others at the end of last month.
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/
Death Penalty News: Mother asks Europe to save son from Belarus ...
Jan 24, 2012
Mother asks Europe to save son from Belarus execution. Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov. (Reuters) - Lyubov Kovalyova, a Belarussian receptionist, was listening to the radio at work in April when she heard that her...
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/

Death Penalty News: Belarus sentences two to death for Minsk ...
Nov 30, 2011
Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov, both 25, were arrested three days after the April 11 explosion which took place on a packed platform at evening rush-hour. The two men, friends since childhood, were said by the ...
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/
Death Penalty News: Belarus 'Outraged' At European Resolution On ...
Feb 18, 2012
The Foreign Ministry said that the European in particular has called into doubt the case of Vladislav Kovalyov and Dmitry Konovalov, who were sentenced to death for bombing a subway station in Minsk in April 2011.
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/
Death Penalty News: 'Don't kill my son. He is not guilty of bombing ...
Dec 03, 2011
Konovalov was also given the death penalty, in a case so flawed there were howls of sarcastic laughter from the public gallery as the judge read his verdict. Belarus is the only country in Europe to retain the death penalty, and...
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/
Death Penalty News: Belarus death-row bomber Vladislav Kovalyov ...
Dec 11, 2011
Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalyov, both 25, were arrested three days after the April 11 explosion which took place on a packed platform at evening rush-hour. The two men, friends since childhood, were said by the .
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/
Location: Minsk, Belarus
Related content:

Most Viewed (Last 7 Days)

First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

Published
Image
Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.
Read more

Cruel and Unusual: Documentary explores epicenter of Texas’ prison system

Published
Image
Every few years, from childhood until my late teens, my granddad would take me along with him to the small Texas town where he grew up—Normangee, population 522—to visit old relatives and even older graves. The drive took us up I-45, beyond the Houston sprawl, past pine forests, and eventually through Huntsville, epicenter of the state prison system. One of the city’s seven prisons was just off the interstate, and as we passed by I’d stare at the guard towers and barbed wire before turning my attention across the street to the Texas Prison Museum, which had its own mock guard towers in the parking lot. (“Prison” and “museum” were words that never seemed to go together.) Later, I learned that the museum’s central attraction was the wooden electric chair the state used for executions until 1964.
Read more

Saudi authorities agree to postpone execution of Kenyan national

Published
Image
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 – Saudi Arabia has acceded to Kenya’s request to postpone the execution of Stephen Munyakho that was set for Wednesday to allow for further negotiations between all parties. According to Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya will be engaging stakeholders in Nairobi and Riyadh, including religious leaders, to agree on the next urgent steps.
Read more

Missouri | Man Facing Execution Next Month Is Hospitalized With Heart Problem

Published
Image
David Hosier, who is weeks away from execution, is in a hospital after suffering what a Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman described as a “medical emergency." ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri death row prisoner who is due to be executed next month has been hospitalized because of a “medical emergency,” a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections said.
Read more

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

Published
Image
The following document is a written record of convicted killer Hamida Djandoubi's last moments before he was guillotined in a Marseilles prison on September 10, 1977. This written record -- dated September 9 -- was written by a judge appointed to witness the execution. Djandoubi's execution was the last execution carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. Then-President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had voiced his "loathing for the death penalty" before he was elected to office, flatly turned down Djandoubi's appeal for clemency and chose to let "Justice run its course", as he did on two previous instances ( Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977). Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was executed in Marseilles' Baumettes prison in September 1977. The following text was writ
Read more