6.3 Counsel further notes that the body of the executed prisoner is transferred at night-time to one of the Minsk cemeteries and buried there by soldiers, without leaving any recognizable sign of the name of the prisoner or the exact location of his burial site. by executing a person who has submitted a communication to the Committee, not only from the perspective whether the Committee had explicitly requested interim measures of protection but also on the basis of the irreversible nature of capital punishment. However, in the circumstances of the current communication and in light of the fact that the first case in which the Committee established a breach of the Optional Protocol for the execution of a person whose case was pending before the Committee10 was decided and published subsequent to the execution of Mr. Bondarenko, the Committee cannot hold the State party responsible for a breach of the Optional Protocol due to the execution of Mr. Bondarenko after the submission of the communication, but prior to its registration.11 6.4 Counsel states that once the court which pronounced the death sentence is informed of the execution, that court then informs a member of the family of the executed prisoner. The family is thereafter issued a death certificate by the municipal civil status service, where the court decision is referred to as the cause of death. 6.5 Counsel asserts, without giving any further detail, that Mrs. Schedko had informed her son’s lawyer, the Supreme Court and the prison authorities that she had submitted a communication to the Human Rights Committee before her son’s actual execution. Admissibility considerations 9.1 Before considering any claim contained in a communication, the Human Rights Committee must, in accordance with rule 87 of its rules of procedure, decide whether or not the communication is admissible under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant. 7.1 On 12 September 2002 the State party replied to the Committee’s request9 concerning the date of the execution of the author’s son, and the exact moment from which the State party was aware of the existence of the communication. It asserts that Mr. Bondarenko was executed on 16 July 1999, further to the decision of the Minsk Regional Court of 22 June 1998. It underlines that the Note of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concerning the registration of the communication was dated 28 October 1999, i.e. that the execution took place three months before the State party was informed about the registration of the communication under the Optional Protocol. 9.2 The Committee notes that the same matter is not being examined under any other international procedure and that domestic remedies have been exhausted. The conditions set forth in paragraphs 2 (a) and (b) of article 5 of the Optional Protocol are therefore satisfied. 9.3 The Committee has noted the author’s allegations that the courts did not have clear, convincing and unambiguous evidence, proving her son’s guilt of the murders, and that the President of the Supreme Court ignored the testimony of her son’s co-defendant given after the trial and refused to include evidence which could have mitigated her son’s guilt. In the author’s opinion, this shows conclusively that the court had a preordained attitude as far as her son’s guilt was concerned, and displays the lack of independence and impartiality of the courts, in violation of articles 6 and 14 of the Covenant. These allegations therefore challenge the evaluation of facts and evidence by the State party’s courts. The Committee recalls that it is generally for the courts of States parties to the Covenant to review facts and evidence in a particular case, unless it can be shown that the evaluation of evidence was clearly arbitrary or amounted to a denial of justice, or that 7.2 The State party did not offer further observations on the author’s allegations. Issues and proceedings before the Committee Alleged breach of the Optional Protocol 8. The author has alleged that the State party breached its obligations under the Optional Protocol by executing her son despite the fact that a communication had been sent to the Committee and the author had informed her son’s lawyer, the prison authorities and the Supreme Court of this measure, prior to her son’s execution and the formal registration of her communication under the Optional Protocol. The State party does not explicitly refute the author’s claim, stating rather that it was appraised of the registration of the author’s communication under the Optional Protocol by note verbale of 28 October 1999, i.e., three months after the execution. In its earlier case law the Committee had addressed the issue of a State party acting in breach of its obligations under the Optional Protocol 9 10 Communication No. 869/1999, Piandiong et al. v. The Philippines. 11 Communications Nos. 839/1998, 840/1998, and 841/1998, Mansaraj et al. v. Sierra Leone, Gborie et al. v. Sierra Leone, and Sesay et al. v. Sierra Leone, paragraph 5.1 et seq.; communication No. 869/1999, Piandiong et al. v. The Philippines, paragraph 5.1 et seq. See endnote No. 2. 139