Amnesty International Report 1994 - Belarus

Dozens of prisoners alleged that they had been ill-treated by, or with the complicity of, prison guards. Tensions continued in parliament between those seeking greater ties with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), formed after the break-up of the Soviet Union, and those wishing to pursue a different line on economic and political reform. Parliamentary Chairman and Head of State Stanislav Shushkevich lost a confidence vote in July after opposing ratification of a CIS collective security treaty, but remained in office as the session was inquorate. Male homosexual activity remained illegal under Article 119 of the criminal code which punished such activity both between consenting adults and if committed by use of force or against a minor. According to the Ministry of Justice, 15 people were sentenced under Article 119 during the first six months of the year, but it was not revealed how many of these sentences were for adult consensual homosexual activity. Dozens of convicted criminal prisoners, mainly from Grodno prison in the west of the country, reported that guards had beaten them or allowed them to be ill-treated. One prisoner said that guards kicked him and beat him with rubber truncheons after he refused food in protest at prison conditions. Others alleged that guards had placed them in a special cell where they faced rape by other prisoners, in an attempt to make them cooperate with the authorities. The death penalty was abolished in July for four economic crimes. According to the Minister of Justice, a new draft criminal code under discussion in parliament proposed exempting women from the death penalty, and further reducing the number of offences carrying a possible death sentence to eight: preparing and conducting an aggressive war, terrorist acts against a representative of another state, international terrorism, genocide, premeditated murder, treason, sabotage, terrorist acts and conspiracy to seize power. No statistics were known to have been published on the application of the death penalty in 1993. Amnesty International sought further information throughout the year on the allegations of ill-treatment in detention. Representatives from the organization visited the country in February but were refused access to Grodno prison on grounds of security. Amnesty International sought clarification on whether men engaging in adult consensual homosexual activity were among those sentenced during the year. Amnesty International welcomed the abolition of the death penalty for economic offences, and continued to urge moves towards total abolition. The organization also called on the government to commute any pending death sentences and publish full statistics on the application of the death penalty.