UA 10-13-09

URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA

To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
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For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa21809.pdf


Note: Please write on behalf of these persons even though you may not have received the original UA when issued on August 17, 2009. Thanks!

13 October 2009

Further information on UA 218/09 (17 August 2009) and follow-up (7 October 2009) - Imminent execution

BELARUS
Vasily Yuzepchuk (m)
Andrei Zhuk (m)

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has allowed the deadline for clemency for Vasily Yuzepchuk to pass. On 12 October, the UN Human Rights Committee registered Vasily Yuzepchuk's case and called on the Belarusian government not to execute Vasily Yuzepchuk while his case is under consideration by the Committee.

President Lukashenka has ignored calls for clemency from the international community, including the Council of Europe. Following the Supreme Court's 2 October rejection of Vasily Yuzepchuk's appeal, President Lukashenka had 10 days in which to grant clemency. On 8 October local human rights activists sent a petition to the UN Human Rights Committee about the case. On 12 October the Committee requested that Belarus not carry out the sentence while it is considering the case.

Vasily Yuzepchuk was sentenced to death on 29 June, for the murder of six elderly women, following an investigation and trial which his lawyer argues were fundamentally flawed: he says that Vasily Yuzepchuk was beaten in detention to force him to confess.

Vasily Yuzepchuk belongs to the marginalized Roma ethnic group; originally from Ukraine, he does not have an internal passport, which is required for all citizens of Belarus. He may have an intellectual disability and according to his lawyer he is illiterate and does not know the months of the year.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Condemned prisoners are given no warning that they are about to be executed, and they are usually put to death within minutes of being told that their appeal for clemency has been rejected. They are first taken to a room where, in the presence of the Director of the detention facility, the Prosecutor and one other Ministry of Interior employee, they are told that their appeal for clemency has been turned down and that the sentence will be carried out. They are then taken to a neighboring room where they are forced to their knees and shot in the back of the head. Their families will only be informed days or sometimes weeks later.

Belarus is the last country in Europe and the former Soviet Union which still carries out executions.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Urging President Lukashenka to comply with the UN Human Rights Committee not to carry out the death sentence against Vasily Yuzepchuk pending its consideration of his case;
- Calling on President Lukashenka to establish an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty, in line with UN General Assembly resolution 63/168, adopted on 18 December 2008.


APPEALS TO:
President
Alyaksandr Lukashenka
Administratsia Prezidenta Respubliki Belarus
ul. Karla Marxa 38
220016 Minsk
BELARUS
Salutation: Dear President Lukashenka


COPIES TO:
Ambassador Oleg Kravchenko
Embassy of the Republic of Belarus
1619 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington DC 20009
Fax: 1 202 986 1805
Email: usa@belarusembassy.org
politics@belarusembassy.org

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 24 November 2009.

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This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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