Third Belarusian Sentenced To Death Since January

А court in Belarus has sentenced a third man to death since January.

Judges in the regional court in the southeastern city of Homel found 33-year-old Syarhey Vostrykau guilty on May 19 of kidnapping, raping, and murdering two women in 2014 and 2015.

Belarus remains the only country in Europe practicing capital punishment.

Three convicts are currently on death row in Belarus. Two of them were sentenced in January and February this year, the third one was sentenced last year.

On May 6, another man sentenced to death last year on murder charges was reported executed.

The European Union and rights groups have urged Belarus to join a global moratorium on the death penalty for years.

According to rights organizations, more than 400 people have been sentenced to death in the ex-Soviet republic since the early 1990s.