The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 an appeal for clemency to the President. According to his defense lawyers, vital evidence was omitted at his trial.79 Siarhei Khmialeuski was sentenced to death in February 2016 for theft and murder. While he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a first instance court, the Supreme Court overturned the sentence and ordered a retrial of the case by the same first instance court. As a result, Khmialeuski was sentenced to death.80 Both Yakovitsky and Khmialeuski’s cases were pending before the United Nations Human Rights Committee at the time of the executions. As the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Miklós Haraszti, pointed out on 5 December 2016, “the cases of Khmialeuski and Yakovitsky were pending before the UN Human Rights Committee, which has oversight power on Belarus’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As a signatory to the Covenant, Belarus is obliged to wait out and respond to the Committee’s judgements”.81 Similarly, the ODIHR Director condemned the execution of Siarhei Khmialeuski in a press statement.82 The third man who was executed, Ivan Kulesh, was sentenced to death in 2015 after being found guilty of three murders, theft, robbery and attempted murder of another person. Ivan Kulesh was reported to be under the influence of alcohol at the time of committing the crime. Furthermore, on 29 March 2016, the Supreme Court rejected Kulesh’s appeal, and the convict chose not to request a presidenial pardon.83 According to Belarusian legislation, relatives of Guennady Yakovitsky, Ivan Kulesh and Siarhei Khmialeuski were not notified in advance of the executions or immediately thereafter. In Belarus, the public is not informed of executions. According to the current legislation, the bodies of executed people are not released to their families, and the time and place of execution, as well as the place of burial are kept secret. As a result, relatives of people executed remain in a state of uncertainty, and they are not even able to bury the body in accordance with family traditions and beliefs. This practice was previously qualified by the UN as cruel, 79  Ibid, p. 28-29. 80  FIDH-HRC “Viasna”, op. cit., note 76, p. 8. 81  “The bloody reality of Belarus’ judicial system stains Europe”, OHCHR, 5 December 2016, http://www.ohchr. org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20984&LangID=E. 82  Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, “Condemning recent execution in Belarus, ODIHR Director repeats call for immediate moratorium on death penalty”2 December 2016, <http://www.osce.org/ odihr/285801 >. 83  “Death convict Ivan Kulesh executed”, VIASNA, 28 November 2016, < http://spring96.org/en/news/85494>. 28