MINSK, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - The Delegation of the European Union to Belarus on Monday called on Minsk authorities to introduce a moratorium on capital punishment as a step toward its further abolition.
"On 13 October, in the wake of the European and World Day against the Death Penalty, the European Union representatives in Minsk repeated their call to the Belarusian authorities to introduce a moratorium on capital punishment... The European Union is firmly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances," the delegation's press release said.
The delegation said that death penalty cannot deter crime as "It can neither reverse the crime it seeks to punish nor mitigate a victim's loss. Moreover, cases when a miscarriage of justice is uncovered too late, after the death sentence is executed, are not all that rare."
Belarus is the only European country practising capital punishment. According to human rights activists in the country, two people have been executed since the beginning of 2014, while two more, who were sentenced in 2013, are currently on death row.
