1. The EU is deeply concerned by the recent developments regarding the death penalty in Belarus. On 17 December 2019, according to the reports of Belarussian human rights defenders, Aliaksandr Asipovich has been executed, bringing to three the total number of executions during the course of last year. On 10 January 2020, the Mahilyow Regional Court pronounced two death sentences for brothers Ilya and Stanislav Kostev, 21 and 19 years old. These two death sentences add to the three death sentences delivered in 2019. A total of four individuals are currently on ‘’death row’’ in Belarus.

2. The EU reaffirms its strong and unequivocal opposition to the use of the death penalty at all times and under all circumstances. Capital punishment violates the inalienable right to life and is incompatible with human dignity. The death penalty does not serve as an effective deterrent to crime and makes any miscarriage of justice irreversible.

3. The EU and the Council of Europe share a common vision of a death penalty-free European continent. The EU calls upon Belarus to bring its legislation, institutions and practices further into line with European standards in the areas of human rights, the rule of law and democracy. The EU welcomes the focus on the death penalty in the Council of Europe Action Plan for Belarus and calls on the Belarusian authorities to fully exploit the opportunities offered by the Action Plan in this regard.

4. We reiterate our strong call on the authorities of Belarus to establish a moratorium on executions as a first step towards its abolition and to commute all pending death sentences. With this step Belarus would join the 160 countries in the world with no executions over the last 10 years and progress on the path towards rapprochement with the Council of Europe.

The following countries align with this statement: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Norway, San Marino, Serbia and Ukraine.