The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area this inhuman and degrading punishment from almost all of Europe, by having made abolition of the death penalty a condition for accession to the Council of Europe. 3. The Assembly urges the United States of America and Japan, as observer states, and Belarus, which aspires to become a member state of the Council of Europe, to join the growing consensus of democratic countries that protect human rights and human dignity by abolishing the death penalty. […] Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Resolution 1857 on the situation in Belarus (2012) […] 6. As regards the death penalty, the Assembly: 6.1. expresses dismay at the execution of the death sentences against Aleh Gryshkautsou and Andrei Burdyka, in July 2011, when their cases were pending before the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and the continuing failure of Belarus to take any tangible steps towards the abolition of the death penalty or the introduction of a moratorium on it; 6.2. deplores the death sentences handed down on 30 November 2011 against Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalev and is seriously worried that the investigation and the trial were marred by serious human rights abuses (including the use of torture in order to extract confessions), contradictions and gaps in the evidence presented at the trial; it calls on the competent authorities to carry out a full investigation of the allegations made in this context and to ensure true justice for the victims of the heinous acts of terrorism in question, and reiterates that such an irreversible, cruel and inhumane penalty is unacceptable, however heinous the alleged crimes; 6.3. notes with regret that the work of the parliamentary working group on the study of the death penalty issue, initiated two years ago, has not produced any tangible results. […] 88