Skip to main content

Belarus | Father who tortured and starved three-year-old son to death gets death penalty

A wealthy father who tortured and starved his three-year-old son to death and made his short life 'pure hell' will be executed with a bullet to the head in Belarus
.

Alexander Taratuta, 48, has been sentenced to death for the brutal torture and murder of his son Semyon. 

He will be shot in the back of the head in Belarus, the only country in Europe to carry out capital punishment.  

His wife Anastasia Taratuta, 37, was sentenced to 25 years in a strict regime penal colony for the murder of Semyon.

The death penalty - by a state executioner - is not allowed for women in Belarus.

Both 'calmly listened to their sentences' while handcuffed in a glass court cage, reported Sputnik media.

Alexander constantly looked away from the camera as a judge handed down the verdict, while Anastasia was seen holding her hands over her face in the dock as her husband was condemned to death.

A court was told how the 'wealthy' couple inflicted a life of 'pure hell' on the boy.

Little Semyon was forced to sleep on bare linoleum and was often numb from the cold at their privately-owned home in Slutsk, 65 miles south of capital Minsk.

His mother - a Russian citizen - regularly punched Semyon in the face, and threw him at her husband or at the wall. She also dropped him into the bath.

The three-year-old was tied to a table leg, and at other times, his hands were tethered and food was dangled in front of his face.

Seymon was starved over a long period, weighing only 15lbs at the age of three when he died.

A picture on his gravestone shows the boy with an injured nose from a wound inflicted by his parents.

'His parents, instead of watching over him, simply insulted, humiliated and beat him,' said one court report.

Alexander denied cruelty, claiming he wanted to 'educate' his son.

As 'punishment' for soiling the floor the terrified boy was put in the bath and objects were thrown at him.

Seymon eventually died on January 4 this year after the father kicked him on the head 'to make him sit on the floor'. The child fell 'showing no signs of life'.

A post mortem found Semyon had eight other serious wounds inflicted by his parents.

A paramedic doctor who confirmed Semyon's death, said: 'The boy was very thin, like a skeleton, covered in skin, looking like an African child with a big belly.

'There was an abrasion on his head and a piece of hair was missing.'

The child's eye socket was 'torn almost to the temple'.

The couple had two more children together, both daughters, now aged four and one, and Anastasia had custody of the elder of two sons, 14 and 12, from a previous relationship.

All are now in care and formal legal procedures are underway to deprive the couple of their parental rights.

Anastasia has two older children, but the horrific child abuse was reserved for Semyon.

Social services chief Galina Shaduro said the family was 'wealthy'.

Both parents saw their elder daughter as a 'princess', while the youngest was also doted on.

After Semyon died, mother Anastasia went to a shop and bought lollipops for her two other young children.

The Belarus general prosecutor said the couple were motivated by 'personal hostility' against the boy. They aimed to kill him, said the prosecutor.

'On the basis of personal hostility towards their obviously young son Semyon, with the aim of murder, they struck him in the presence of his younger brother with and hands and feet at least nine times, seven of which were to the head.

'The defendants were aware that by inflicting multiple blows on the boy with significant force, including with booted feet, on the head, torso and limbs, they were causing his son prolonged physical pain, special torture and suffering.'

In his 'last word' to the court, Alexander, a Belarus citizen who earlier worked at a clothing factory, said he regretted that his life 'turned out this way'.

Alexander said he 'felt sorry that the last strike' on his son was 'too strong'.

'There were no intentions, no conspiracies. I didn't want to kill, there were no such thoughts,' he said.

His wife was condemned in one court report as a 'cheap actress who pretended to be a heartbroken mother during the final court session'.

She had written a final speech to the court but refused to read it.

He can appeal his sentence from Death Row, and seek a pardon from Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

But such moves seldom change count decisions on executions.

Those facing the death penalty are blindfolded and forced to kneel before being shot in the back of the head.

The method is similar to that used in Stalin times in the USSR.

Source: Mail Online, Will Stewart, October 20, 2023


_____________________________________________________________________

Home  |  Twitter/X  |  Facebook  |  Telegram  | Contact us






"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Most viewed (Last 7 days)

Saudi Arabia executed 356 people in 2025, highest number on record

Analysts attribute increase to kingdom’s ‘war on drugs’ as authorities kill 356 people by death penalty Saudi authorities executed 356 people in 2025, setting a new record for the number of inmates put to death in the kingdom in a single year. Analysts have largely attributed the increase in executions to Riyadh’s “war on drugs”, with some of those arrested in previous years only now being executed after legal proceedings and convictions. Official data released by the Saudi government said 243 people were executed in drug-related cases in 2025 alone, according to a tally kept by Agence France-Presse.

The US reporter who has witnessed 14 executions: ‘People need to know what it looks like’

South Carolina-based journalist Jeffrey Collins observed back-to-back executions in 2025 after the state revived the death penalty following a 13-year pause Jeffrey Collins has watched 14 men draw their final breaths. Over 25 years at the Associated Press, the South Carolina-based journalist has repeatedly served as an observer inside the state’s execution chamber, watching from feet away as prison officials kill men who were sentenced to capital punishment. South Carolina has recently kept him unusually busy, with seven back-to-back executions in 14 months.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester.  Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Georgia parole board suspends scheduled execution of Cobb County death row prisoner

The execution of a Georgia man scheduled for Wednesday has been suspended as the State Board of Pardons and Paroles considers a clemency application.  Stacey Humphreys, 52, would have been the state's first execution in 2025. As of December 16, 2025, Georgia has carried out zero executions in 2025. The state last executed an inmate in January 2020, followed by a pause due to COVID-19. Executions resumed in 2024, but none have occurred this year until now. Humphreys had been sentenced to death for the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, who were fatally shot at the real estate office where they worked.

USA | Justice Department Encourages New Capital Charges Against Commuted Federal Death Row Prisoners

On Dec. 23, 2024, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. commuted the sentences of nearly all federal death row prisoners, sparing 37 men from execution. Just 28 days later, on Jan. 20, 2025, newly inaugurated President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order encouraging state and local prosecutors to pursue new charges against those same prisoners, reopening the possibility of capital punishment in state courts.

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

Iran | Executions in Shiraz, Borazjan, Ahvaz, Isfahan, Ardabil, Rasht, Ghaemshahr, Neishabur

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 23, 2025: Mahin Rashidi, Abbas Alami, Naser Faraji, Tohid Barzegar and Jamshid Amirfazli, five co-defendants on death row for drug-related offences, were secretly executed in a group hanging in Shiraz Central Prison.  According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, four men and a woman were hanged in Shiraz (Adel Abad) Central Prison on 17 December 2025. Their identities have been established as Mahin Rashidi, a 39-year-old woman, Abbas Alami, 43, Naser Faraji, 38, Tohid Barzegar, 51, and Jamshid Amirfazli, 45, all Kashan natives.

California | Convicted killer Scott Peterson keeps swinging in court — but expert says he’s not going anywhere but his cell

More than two decades after Laci Peterson vanished from her Modesto, California, home, the murder case that captivated the nation continues to draw legal challenges, public debate and renewed attention. As the year comes to a close, Scott Peterson, convicted in 2004 of murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son Conner, remains behind bars, serving life without the possibility of parole. His wife disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002, and a few months later, the remains of Laci and Conner were found in the San Francisco Bay.

M Ravi, the man who defied Singapore regime's harassment, dies

M Ravi never gave up despite the odds stacked against him by the Singapore regime, which has always used its grip on the legal process to silence critics. M Ravi, one of Singapore's best-known personalities who was at the forefront of legal cases challenging the PAP regime over human rights violations, has died. He was 56. The news has come as a shock to friends and activists. Singapore's The Straits Times reported that police were investigating the "unnatural death".

Singapore | Prolific lawyer M Ravi, known for drug death-penalty cases, found dead

Ravi Madasamy, a high-profile lawyer who represented death-row inmates and campaigned against capital punishment, was found dead in the early hours, prompting a police investigation into an unnatural death KUALA LUMPUR — Prolific Singapore lawyer Ravi Madasamy who tried to save Malaysian drug traffickers from the gallows found dead in the early hours with police investigating a case of unnatural death. Lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam, who had previously represented 56-year-old Ravi in court and described him as a friend, said he was deeply saddened by the news.