A campaign of mass political repression has been going on in Belarus for almost two years now. The scale is unprecedented: there are now more than 1,200 political prisoners, and the authorities have initiated over 5,000 criminal cases related to politics since the country’s contested presidential election in August 2020.
Yet, the Belarusian authorities’ level of cruelty continues to grow – now, opponents of the regime of President Alexander Lukashenka can be threatened not only with Stalinist prison terms, but with the death penalty.
Death penalty for ‘attempted terrorism’
Belarus is the only country in Europe that still has the death penalty, and more than 400 people have been executed since 1991. Until now, execution has been reserved for only the most violent crimes; the authorities have never sought it for political opponents.
