Third time in 2016: Belarusian court sentences serial murderer to death


Syarhei Vostrykau, photo taken from nn.by

Homiel Regional Court sentenced a 33-year-old man to capital punishment, news agency BelaPAN reports.

Syarhei Vostrykau, a resident of Homiel, was charged under several articles of the Criminal Code (rape; sexual assault; kidnapping; murder committed with extreme brutality for the purpose of concealing another crime; theft). The case was heard behind closed doors.

The man tempted his victims into a car, took to the garage, raped and killed. Then he dug their bodies in the forest.

The first victim of the serial killer became his colleague, 25-year-old Alesya Pantsialeyeva, she was murdered in July 2014. Almost a year later, 27-year-old Alyavtsina Mashurykava who also worked at the same enterprise left for work at 6 am and disappeared.

Law enforcement agencies found the car which Mashurykava was going by and identified Vostrykay as a suspect. As it turned out, he offered his female colleagues a ride to work.

Syarhei Vostrykau has a wife and a 3-year-old child.

It is the third sentence of death that Belarusian court has pronounced since the beginning of 2016. In January Henadz Yakavitski, a resident of Vileyka, was sentenced to capital punishment for murder committed with extreme brutality; in May The Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the death sentence passed in February 2016 upon Syarhei Khmyaleuski, a 31-year-old resident of Minsk district, who killed three persons.

On May 6, it was reported about the execution of Syarhei Ivanou, who was death-sentenced in March 2015 for murdering a girl.

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Belarus remains the only country in Europe that still applies capital punishment, The West has repeatedly called on the Belarusian authorities to join a global moratorium as a first step towards the abolition of death penalty. Over 400 persons have been sentenced to death since 1991; president Alyaksandr Lukashenka granted a pardon to only one convict.

A high-profile case over the explosion in Minsk metro on April 11, 2011 is to be recalled: in March, 2012 Uladzislau Kavaliou and Dzmitry Kanavalau were put to death after being convicted of carrying out a terrorist attack.

The death verdict to the young men delivered by the Supreme Court of Belarus on November, 30, 2011 triggered a mixed reaction in society and drew attention to the death penalty issue once again. Mr Kanavalau admitted legality of the judgement and refused to lodge a petition for pardon but Mr Kavaliou denied his participation in organising three explosions and stated that in the course of investigation he had incriminated himself and Kanavalau acting under pressure of law enforcement officials.

Belsat.eu, following BelaPAN

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