Picks of the week

On April 11 and 12, the Court of the Brest region cancelled heavy fines earlier imposed on Belsat reporter Ales Liauchuk and local vloggers Aliaksandr Kabanau and Siarhei Piatrukhin. The fines were ordered by the Pinsk District Court. All of them were convicted of “violating media legislation”.

Aliaksandr Kabanau (center) and Siarhei Piatrukhin (right) pictured next to human rights activist Uladzimir Vialichkin (left) outside the Brest Regional Court building after being cleared of all charges on April 11, 2018

Andrei Paluda, coordinator of the campaign “Human Rights defenders against the Death Penalty in Belarus”, has started a speaker tour in three European countries, France, Switzerland and Italy, aimed at promoting the idea of abolishing capital punishment in Belarus. He is accompanied by Aliaksandra Yakavitskaya, daughter of Henadz Yakavitski, who was executed in 2016.

Aliaksandra Yakavitskaya (left), Andrei Paluda (right) and Robert Badinter (center), former French Minister of Justice, during a meeting in Amnesty International headquarters in Paris. Badinter is known for having championed the abolition of the death penalty in France in 1981.

“In Europe and Central Asia, Belarus was the only country to execute people. The country carried out at least two executions in 2017; at least four new death sentences were imposed,” Amnesty International said in its Annual Report on the death penalty worldwide.