Belarus remains the only country in Europe that applies the death penalty.388 In April 2024, the UN Human Rights Committee raised concerns on violations regarding the ‘right to a fair trial and right to life’ of two persons executed in 2018389 for six murders ‘linked to a real estate scam’.390 In October 2024, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced to death a person convicted of murder.391
In June 2024, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced to capital punishment a German citizen392 after finding him guilty under six articles of the Criminal Code, including ‘terrorism’, ‘extremism’, ‘rendering transport or communication routes unusable’,393 ‘participation in mercenary activities’, and ‘undercover activities’.394 At the end of July 2024, he was pardoned by president Lukashenka and released as a part of a prisoner exchange between the Russian Federation and the US and Germany.395
- 388
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 16; HRW, Belarus – Events of 2025, 4 February 2026, url
- 389
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2024, 16 January 2025, url
- 390
COE, CM/Inf(2017)23 - Abolition of the death penalty - Information document by the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law on the death penalty in Belarus, 13 October 2017, url
- 391
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2024, 16 January 2025, url
- 392
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2024, 16 January 2025, url; UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 16
- 393
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2024, 16 January 2025, url
- 394
UN Human Rights Council, Report of Human Rights in Belarus, 22 April 2025, url, para. 16
- 395
HRW, Belarus – Events of 2024, 16 January 2025, url