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“MP”: Referendum on death penalty abolition unnecessary

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“MP”: Referendum on death penalty abolition unnecessary

According to the Constitution, it is possible to abolish the death penalty in the country only by referendum.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka or the “parliament” can impose moratorium on execution of the sentence. However it is unadvisable to hold a referendum on the abolition of the capital punishment in Belarus now, said the chairman of the standing committee on foreign affairs of the “chamber of representatives” Mikalai Samasejka, BelaPAN reports.

“A referendum is probably needed for a full abolition of the capital punishment. But there is some controversy on that still. Why? That’s because the question of the death penalty is contained in the same chapter of the Constitution which could be amended by referendum only. But it is written in the same chapter, that the death penalty is maintained until it is abolished. That is, its abolition is behind the text already,” – Samasejka explained. He is the head of the parliamentary working group on studying the death penalty issues.

The MP underlined that he is an adherent of gradual transition to solvation of the death penalty problem. At the same time Samasejka noted that the question of imposing a moratorium on death penalty is “at the stage of discussion concerning its necessity.”

“A decision could be passed when the opinion is changed – the public opinion, and the opinion of MPs as well,” Samasejka sai. “It is written in the finding of the Constitutional Court that imposing a moratorium could be initiated either by the president or the parliament. You know the opinion of the president. And let’s be honest, the opinion of MPs depends on the opinion of the president to some extent. Besides, as mouthpieces of the will of the nation, of the society which had elected them, far from the majority of the deputies is in favour of imposing the moratorium. That is why we need outreach and explaining to the population and MPs.”

However the reference of the government to the “public opinion” is already outdated. We remind that the reluctance to abolish the death penalty is explained by the authorities by the results of the referendum in 1996, when according to the official data, the great majority of Belarusians were against abolition of the death penalty.

However the results of that referendum do not reflect the real situation in the society any more. As noted by sociologists, the attitude of Belarusians towards the capital punishment started to change dramatically after Dzmitry Kanavalau and Uladzislau Kavalyou, who had been charged with a terrorist attack in metro in 2011, were sentenced to death. And last year for the first time the number of opponents of death penalty in Belarus was more than the number of its supporters.

Belarus is the only country in Europe where the death penalty still exists. It is one of the main reasons why Belarus is not a member of the Council of Europe. Touching upon the death penalty problem, the Belarusian authorities refer to the results of the referendum in 1996, when the vast majority of the population was in favour of preserving this kind of punishment.

In April, addressing the session of the Committee for Political Issues and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, Samasejka stated that Belarus is ready to discuss the issue of the death penalty with the Council of Europe.

Experts are inclined to think that the problem of the death penalty abolition, or at least imposing a moratorium is the main bargaining chip of the Belarusian authorities in their dialogue with the EU.

It is easier and safer for Lukashenka’s regime to abolish the death penalty, than to release political prisoners, or to make concessions in the issues of political liberalization. All the more so as in such a case the government is to have an “ironclad” argument: just a few political prisoners are not so important as dozens and hundreds of human lives.

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