Mark Pritchard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Belarusian counterpart on recent death penalty sentences handed down by Belarusian courts and the position of the Belarusian government on the abolition of the death penalty.

Mr David Lidington

The UK continues to press Belarus to implement a moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards abolition.

Officials from London and in the Embassy in Minsk make representations to the Government of Belarus at each available opportunity. Most recently the Director General, Political at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office visited Minsk and spoke about the need for a moratorium on the death penalty during discussions with the Deputy Foreign Minister, Ms Alena Kupchina, on 9 February 2016.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office is funding a conference on the death penalty to help stimulate debate about the advantages of a moratorium and abolition within the Government of Belarus and civil society.

The UK supports statements and demarches by the European Union on all death penalties handed down in Belarus.