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
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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
