The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2021 Death sentences between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021 At the end of the reporting period, in Belarus, five individuals were known to be under sentence of death, and three death sentences were reportedly handed down.152 In May 2020, the Supreme Court of Belarus upheld the death sentences of Stanislau and Illia Kostseu, who became known as the “Kostseu brothers.” The brothers, 19 and 21 years old at the time when they killed their neighbour, reportedly had a difficult childhood, being raised in foster families and orphanages.153 Their conviction resulted in an Urgent Action initiative of Amnesty International calling for a commutation of their death penalties.154 Both defendants petitioned to the President of Belarus for clemency.155 Prisoners are reportedly not told of decisions on clemency petitions, until they are taken to be executed.156 It was also noted by human rights defenders that, for the first time in Belarus, two death sentences were passed for the murder of one person, and stressed how the death penalty is not the solution to end violence in society.157 Another death sentence was handed down during the reporting period against Viktar Skrundzik in January 2021 after he was found guilty of murdering two elderly people. He had appealed his original death sentence and the Supreme Court ordered a retrial of his case in June 2020. At the beginning of 2021 the Minsk Regional Court handed down a death sentence for a second time.158 Viktar Skrundzik appealed for clemency from the President, and was at risk of execution at the end of the reporting period.159 The General Rapporteur of PACE on the abolition of the death penal- 152 “Amnesty International Global Report: Death sentences and executions 2020”, Amnesty International, 21 April 2021, p. 34 153 Viasna, Supreme Court confirms death sentence for Kostseu brothers, 22 May 2020. 154 Viasna, Amnesty International urges Belarus to stop execution of Kostseu brothers, 24 June 2020. 155 In May 2021, after the reporting period for this paper, the two defendants were pardoned by the President and sentenced to life imprisonment. For more information, see Community Sant’ Egidio, Brothers Kostseu Transferred to a Prison for Ordinary Prisoners, 5 May 2021. 156 Amnesty International Global Report, 2020, op. cit., note 152, p. 32. 157 Viasna, “Наше государство не даёт шанса исправиться”: сестра приговоренных к смертной казни из Черикова, [“Our state does not give a chance to improve”: the sister of those sentenced to death from Cherikov], 17 January 2020. 158 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, In Rare Move, Belarusian Court Cancels Death Sentence In HighProfile Case, 1 July 2020. 159 Amnesty International Global Report, 2020, op. cit., note 152, p. 35; and Viasna, Верховный суд не удовлетворил апелляционную жалобу осужденного к смертной казни Виктора Скрундика, [Supreme Court did not confirm the appeal of the condemned to death Viktor Skrundik] , 4 May 2021. 40