• Urgent Action

Urgent Action: Viktar Paulau at Risk of Imminent Execution (Belarus: UA 168.19)

December 2, 2019

Viktar Paulau is at risk of imminent execution after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence on 12 November. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, without exception, as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

TAKE ACTION:
  1. Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.
  2. Click here to let us know the actions you took on Urgent Action 168.19. It’s important to report because we share the total number with the officials we are trying to persuade and the people we are trying to help.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka President of Belarus Vul. Karla Marksa, 38 220016 Minsk, Belarus Fax: +375 17 226 06 10 +375 17 222 38 72 Email: [email protected]
Ambassador Dmitry Basik Embassy of Belarus 1619 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20009 Phone: 202 986 9420 I Fax: 202 986 1805 Email: [email protected] Salutation: Dear Ambassador

Dear President, I am writing to express my concern about the fate of Viktar Paulau who was convicted and sentenced to death on 30 July by the Viciebsk Regional Court and whose sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court on 12 November. Viktar Paulau was found guilty of the murder of two people in December 2018. According to local human rights defenders, there were irregularities in the court hearing which violated his right to a fair trial. Following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the sentence, Viktar Paulau is now at risk of imminent execution. The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and should be abolished. Belarus remains the only country in Europe and the former Soviet Union which still carries out executions. I urge you to ommediately halt the execution of Viktar Paulau and all those on death row in Belarus; immediately establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty; commute all death sentences to terms of imprisonment. Yours sincerely, ADDITIONAL RESOURCES