The lower house of the Belarusian parliament adopted in the second (final) reading a bill introducing the death penalty for officials and military personnel for treason. The bill is supposed to amend the sanction of Part 2 of Art. 356 of the Criminal Code “Treason to the State”, after approval by the Council of the Republic (the upper house of the Belarusian parliament), Alexander Lukashenko must sign the document.
The document also establishes a fine for “anti-state” crimes ranging from 500 to 50 thousand basic units (1 base unit is about 37 Belarusian rubles, 980 Russian rubles at the rate of the National Bank of Belarus). This is an indicator that is used to calculate pensions, taxes, fines and a number of other penalties and payments.
In addition, if the bill is signed, the term of detention of those suspected of espionage, treason and a number of other anti-state crimes will be extended by up to 10 days. The term for bringing charges will also increase – up to 20 days from the moment of detention.
Earlier, Pavel Slyunkin, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a former Belarusian ambassador to Lithuania, said in a conversation with The Insider that with the adoption of this bill, Belarus is preparing for the possibility of an active entry into the war. Experts noted that Belarus is the only country in Europe where the death penalty is used as a punishment. In the past ten years, there have been several executions a year. Human rights activists believe that the authorities can use the death penalty to repress and threaten oppositionists on trumped-up criminal cases.