The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area Method of Execution The death penalty is carried out by firing squad.111 Statistics on Death Sentences According to the statistics provided by the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Belarus to the OSCE, two individuals were sentenced to death during the reporting period.112 Eduard Evgenevich Lykov (Lykau) (born on 15 March 1960, a resident of Moscow, Russia, and a citizen of the Republic of Belarus) was sentenced to death by the Minsk Regional Court on 23 November 2013 for the murder of an elderly person, among other criminal acts.113 The verdict entered into force on 15 April 2014. At the time of writing, Eduard Lykov’s application for clemency was under consideration by the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus. Aleksandr Maratovich Grunov (Alyaksandr Haryunou)114 (born on 20 February 1988, a resident of Homel, Belarus, and a citizen of the Republic of Belarus) was sentenced to death by the Homel Regional Court on 24 December 2013 for premeditated murder. At the time of writing, Aleksandr Grunov’s application for clemency was under consideration by the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus.115 The Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Belarus to the OSCE did not report on the number of death row inmates. 111  Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, op. cit., note 106. 112  Belarus response, op. cit., note 99. 113  According to the response of Belarus to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty, Eduard Evgenevich Lykov was sentenced to death for committing offences under “part 2, 6, 8, 10, 16 of paragraph 2 of Article 139 and paragraph 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus”. 114  The Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Belarus to the OSCE, in its response to the 2013 ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty, received on 6 August 2013, reported that Aleksandr Grunov (Alyaksandr Haryunou) Maratovich was sentenced to death by Homel Regional Court for committing an offence under part 6 of paragraph 2 of Article 139 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, on 14 June 2013. According to Amnesty International, on 22 October 2013, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus overturned the death sentence by the Homel Regional Court against Aleksandr Grunov and returned the case for reconsideration to the court of first instance. On 24 December 2013, the regional court again sentenced him to death (see “Urgent Action, Man sentenced to death in Belarus, http://www. amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR49/001/2014/en/fa0960a3-9739-4c17-bdc7-4b135931f6fc/eur490012014en.pdf). 115  The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions requested the government of Belarus to provide information on the allegations regarding the mental illness of Mr. Aleksandr Grunov. The Special Rapporteur noted that international human rights law prohibits the imposition of the death penalty against persons with mental illness (A/HRC/26/36/Add.2). 28