Why Is Belarus Expanding the Use of the Death Penalty?

The deputies’ initiative to apply the death penalty for an attempted act of terrorism worsens the human rights situation in Belarus and is aimed at intimidating the protest-minded population, experts say.

A measure of intimidation for protest-minded Belarusians
Andrei Kazakevich, director of the Political Sphere Institute, directly links the amendments to the Criminal Code on the death penalty to the political situation in the country and calls them an exclusively repressive measure.

In addition to the situation with the “railway partisans,” the political scientist believes the authorities may see a threat in Belarusians’ participation in the military conflict in Ukraine.
“It should be understood that the concept of ‘terrorism’ is now interpreted very broadly; for example, it even includes damage to property, which was previously punished under a different article.

Against this background, the introduction of the death penalty merely for intending to commit a terrorist act is another measure of psychological pressure on everyone somehow involved in the protest movement.

This is a disproportionate reaction by the state,” Andrei Kazakevich says.

The political scientist supports the words of human rights defenders that the death penalty itself does not affect the number of crimes committed. “But in the logic of the authorities, it is supposed to work as intimidation; it will probably now be actively promoted in state media.

They see repression as the only mechanism for reducing protest activity and are trying to use the threat of the death penalty to lower the level of radical protest,” Kazakevich believes.

Read in full (https://www.dw.com/ru/zachem-v-belarusi-rasshirjajut-primenenie-smertnoj-kazni/a-61612038)