The 26-year-old woman was drinking with her friend at her apartment when the latter committed the heinous act
A 26-year-old mother, who witnessed her 8-month-old child being brutally beaten and beheaded by her 48-year-old accomplice, has lost her appeal against a maximum prison sentence, and now faces 25 years of imprisonment.
While her killer accomplice, identified as Viktar Syarhel, also lost his Supreme Court appeal in Belarus against a death sentence and is now set to be executed by a a single pistol shot to the back of the head.
The child's mother, Natalya Kolb, was reportedly drinking with friend Syarhel at her apartment when the latter committed the heinous act while she watched.
The baby, identified as Hanna, had 46 separate injuries on her body and was killed with a kitchen knife.
The child's bloodied body was discovered by Kolb's husband Leonid Kolb, who came home with the couple's two other children, two boys aged four and six, and saw his daughter's severed head and a pool of blood, according to the Daily Mail.
"He saw a scene out of the horror movies," a neighbor, while talking to reporters, said of the father. "The ambulance doctor fainted when she came in." The neighbors living near the family's home recounted that the couple was "happy" and they had even recently baptized the child in the Orthodox Church.
The pair were subsequently arrested and sentenced in October 2019. The closed-door session of Brest Regional Court ruled that the murder was carried out with "particular cruelty" and that the baby was badly beaten before being murdered.
By law, only men in Belarus can face capital punishment.
Those facing the death penalty are blindfolded and forced to kneel, and then they are shot in the back of the head.
Over 400 men have been executed in a similar manner in Belarus since the country became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Death penalty verdicts in Belarus in recent times have sparked debates with a large population in the country being opposed to it.
President Alexander Lukashenko, however, last year had indicated that death penalties will continue to be the ultimate punishment for criminals.
Source: meaww.com, Namrata Tripathi, February 3, 2020
Killer given death sentence for beheading baby girl with kitchen knife
The baby murderer who decapitated an 8-month old child will be shot in the back of the head by an executioner after losing his Supreme Court appeal.
The baby’s mother will now be sentenced to life imprisonment for the same October 2018 killing as the death penalty only applies to men under Belarusian law.
Viktar Syarhel, 48, and Nataliya Kolb, 26, were drinking together in the flat when they killed Hanna. Her husband Leonid, 28, came home with the couple’s other children aged 4 and 6, and saw his daughter’s severed head and a pool of blood.
A neighbour said: ‘He saw a scene out of the horror movies. The ambulance doctor fainted when she came in.’
Hanna had 46 separate injuries on her body after being badly beaten and killed with a kitchen knife, the closed-door session of Brest Regional Court ruled it was carried out with ‘particular cruelty’.
Syarhel immediately shook his head after the judge said ‘You have the right to submit a plea for mercy’, waiving his right to seek clemency from president Alexander Lukashenko.
Those facing the death penalty are blindfolded and forced to kneel before being shot in the back of the head.
Belarus is the only European country to still use capital punishment. The EU and other international organisations have urged Belarus to stop using the death penalty.
Since 1991 fall of the Soviet Union more than 400 men have been executed.
Lukashenko, who has only spared 1 man during his more than quarter of a century in power, said last year he would continue to approve death penalty cases because people had voted for capital punishment in a referendum.
He said it was his duty and added: ‘Do you think I am happy about this death penalty, considering that I sign it, and then, put crudely, someone is shot?’
Legislators in the country are said to be reviewing whether to recommend ending the death penalty.
Source: metro.co.uk, Staff, February 3, 2020
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
