MINSK. Nov 12 (Interfax) - The death penalty can be abolished in Belarus only through a referendum, but this option is not under consideration at present, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.
"Is it worth putting this question [on the abolition of the death penalty] to a referendum today and receiving a negative answer? I don't think it's worth it," the Belarusian state news agency BelTA quoted Lukashenko as telling journalists in Vienna on Tuesday.
Minsk is not ignoring the EU's initiatives on abolishing the death penalty in Belarus and does take them into consideration, he said. "We cannot perceive this indifferently, frankly speaking. And we conduct polls on the abolition of the death penalty very frequently. Nothing has changed since the matter was decided on at the referendum [in 1996]," Lukashenko said.
The EU has demanded that Belarus abolish the death penalty, he said. "Therefore, we agreed with Brussels politicians some time ago to work together toward this. And we worked out a plan, a roadmap, on how to work with the Belarusian public. We are moving toward this. Haste can only be detrimental here," Lukashenko said.
Belarus is the only country in Europe and in the CIS still applying the death penalty, which, in line with the Belarusian constitution, is seen as an exceptional punishment for especially serious crimes. Criminals sentenced to death are executed by firing squad.
As a rule, the relatives of the criminals sentenced to death are not informed of their execution and are not granted a last visit before it is carried out. Belarusian law stipulates that the bodies of the executed criminals are not released to their relatives for burial, nor are their relatives informed of their burial place.
The EU, the OSCE, and a number of international organizations have regularly condemned Belarus for applying the death penalty.