The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 represents the highest number of executions since 2008.74 However, human rights organizations believe that this number of executions might be higher.75 In its response to the ODIHR questionnaire, Belarus confirmed that during the reporting period no presidential pardons were granted. Syarhei Ivanov is the first person known to have been executed in Belarus since November 2014. He was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of Belarus in March 2015 for murder, theft and robbery committed in 2013, and was reportedly executed on 18 April 2016. His execution was discovered by human rights defenders who learned it from a statement made in court by another death-row inmate, who had shared a cell with Ivanov. The night when he was taken out of his cell the inmate realized that he was not returned to his cell. In the morning, the inmate had to hand over all of Ivanov’s belongings to penitentiary staff who allegedly made comments insinuating that he would no longer need those things.76 Ivanov’s brother had petitioned the United Nations Human Rights Committee, arguing that his trial was unfair, and stating that, during the trial, Ivanov remained handcuffed and was obliged to wear special clothes with the label “capital punishment” on them. It was also alleged that he was not brought promptly before a judge upon arrest and had limited access to a lawyer.77 In accordance with the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Belarus acceded to in 1992, the Human Rights Committee had requested the Belarusian authorities not to carry out the execution while the case was under consideration.78 Despite the request, the execution was carried out, even though the case was still pending with the UN body. On 5 November 2016, three other executions were carried out without any prior notice, those of Siarhei Khmialeuski, Ivan Kulesh and Guennady Yakovitsky. In January 2016, the Minsk Regional Court found Guennady Yakovitsky guilty of a murder committed in 2015. Yakovitsky denied the charges against him and lodged an appeal against his conviction and death sentence with the Supreme Court and 74  United Nations Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/35/40, 21 April 2017, para. 98, < https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/ G17/097/69/PDF/G1709769.pdf?OpenElement>. >. 75  “Executing Countries in 2016”, Amnesty International, op. cit., note 63.; see also “Belarus: First death sentence in 2017”, Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme, 21 March 2017, < https://www.fidh. org/en/region/europe-central-asia/belarus/belarus-first-death-sentence-in-2017>; see also “Belarus: Three executions feared in as many weeks amid ‘sudden and shameful purge’ of death row”, Amnesty International, 30 November 2016, <https://www.amnesty.nl/actueel/belarus-three-executions-feared-many-weeks-amid-suddenshameful-purge-death-row>. 76  “Death Penalty in Belarus: Murder on (Un)lawful Grounds”, FIDH-HRC “Viasna”, 5 October 2016, page 8, <https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/belarus683angbassdef.pdf >. 77  “Belarus: execution shows ‘callous disdain’ for international human rights law – UN experts”, UN News Centre, 13 may 2016. <http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53935#.WYsscFUjGJA>. 78  Amnesty International, op. cit., note 63, p. 28. 27