Thread: Death penalty for Metro bombers in Belarus

Will you propose not to incarcerate people at all, because innocents can be sent to prison by mistake?

If someone who is incarcerated is later found innocent - you can release him and pay him a compensation.
If someone who is executed is later found innocent - you cannot do anything anymore.

And another thing - government and justice system are not perfect in any country.

But I think that anyone who intentionally killed someone should never be let out of prison.

This is the problem!
Every time the regime changes, new "chiefs" immediately release the monsters out of prisons.
In any case, holding the murderers in the cells seems a strange measure. And I disagree that death penalty is for threatening: it looks like the beasts never think about consequences. It's more about victims: to make their further living possible.

Does anyone know what the perpetrators have said about their motivation for bombing the Minsk Metro - It's virtually impossible to believe that they did it because "they were explosives enthusiasts" as the BBC wrote. Was there not anything else behind it? Perhaps they hated the state for some reason, or they were mentally ill? Is there any conspiracy theory behind this? If so, what is that?

How are people executed in Belarus?
How many executions are carried out, per year.

Let's check and compare with the execution per capita rate of the USA (I am inspired by the article Deborski linked to in the General forum) and want to see how "the last dictatorship in Europe" compares with "the land of the free".

Originally Posted by Hanna

Does anyone know whether the Belarussian Metro bombers can appeal etc? Or is that it?
How to they execute people in Belarus?

I have been taking Belarus' position in several debates here, because I think that Belarus is misrepresented in Western media. But on this one I am NOT taking their position!

They can appeal. And as far as I know one of them doesn't want to appeal. Western media of course says about tortures in bloody KGB. Mother of one of them also wrote a petition to the President but it was dismissed.

We will never know why and whether they did it. But those who did it should be punished. I was happy that my sister that day was late from work. She usually went there that time.

Israel and Interpol persons confirmed investigation. So I can believe that "bombers" were involved in the crime.

People are executed by the pistol.

Capital punishment in Belarus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some comments:
In 9x there were many bandits because of crush of the Soviet Union. Wild wealth accumulation period. Because of strict measures Belarus doesn't have organized crime today. Sometimes they try to appear, but they are executed. For example, in 2006 we can see 9 executions in statistics. That year several cases of criminal groups were finished.

Strict measures to the bandits is one of the reasons, why Lukashenko was so popular in 9x and at first became the President and at second changed the Constitution from parliamentary republic to presidential.

Regarding euthanasia - I am in favor of allowing physician-assisted euthanasia for those who are terminally ill. I know, when I am old and sick, if there is nothing but pain in my future, I might want to have this choice! I think it would be a preferable way to die. My loved ones could all gather around and say their goodbyes, and then I would just go to sleep. I think it's a better way than slowly dying alone in some sterile hospital, hooked up to machines, trying to keep me alive when there is nothing left of me.

It should be a choice.

Originally Posted by Dmitry Khomitchuk

Capital punishment in Belarus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some comments:
In 9x there were many bandits because of crush of the Soviet Union. Wild wealth accumulation period. Because of strict measures Belarus doesn't have organized crime today. Sometimes they try to appear, but they are executed. For example, in 2006 we can see 9 executions in statistics. That year several cases of criminal groups were finished.

Strict measures to the bandits is one of the reasons, why Lukashenko was so popular in 9x and at first became the President and at second changed the Constitution from parliamentary republic to presidential.

I agree with what you are saying - Belarus is the safest country in Europe, actually.
I have never felt so safe late at night in a large city as I did in Minsk. Lukashenko has done a very good job with that.

I had another experience there that was really impressive. I forgot a small bag at the Ladies' in Gomel. (I know, how stupid & clumsy can one get...?) The bag contained an expensive ebook reader, a wallet with lots of Belarussian money and about 200 Euro. And a camera. Stupidly I did not realise until about 10 minutes later and ran back to the place. The lady who was in charge of the toilets said the next visitor handed in my bag. She had then gone looking for me in the station and when she did not see me she handed in the bag to the Police. I went to the police and they gave me the bag immediately and did not expect any handling fee or anything like that. Everything was there, including the money. This was not because I was a foreigner, they had no way of knowing that initially. I was totally impressed. When I insisted on giving the toilet lady 50 Euro as a finders fee, she first did not want to accept it (but I managed to convince her eventually, to take it in order to buy a gift to her children). Not sure whether this is typical for Belarus or not - but I found it very impressive.

It IS the Belarussian people's decision whether they want the death penalty in their country or not, but I just think it's a shame that there is one country in Europe that still uses the death penalty. It would be nicer to think that it was not used anywhere on this continent.
As for mode of execution, shooting the person seems somehow to be the least disgusting way of killing somebody (well, it's disgusting too, but not as much as the electrical chair, hanging them or injecting them with poison.)


Ok the comparison:

Number of people in Belarus: 9 mil
Number of executions in 2006: 9 executions

Number of people in the USA: 300 mil. (in '06)
Number of executions in 2006: 53

Ok - actually Belarus executes more people per capita per year than the USA, so my idea that the USA might be worse in this respect was wrong.

Originally Posted by Dmitry Khomitchuk

They can appeal. And as far as I know one of them doesn't want to appeal. Western media of course says about tortures in bloody KGB. Mother of one of them also wrote a petition to the President but it was dismissed.

We will never know why and whether they did it. But those who did it should be punished. I was happy that my sister that day was late from work. She usually went there that time.

Israel and Interpol persons confirmed investigation. So I can believe that "bombers" were involved in the crime.

People are executed by the pistol.

Why does Israeli Shin Bet and (ex)Mossad agents need to be there?

Yahoo! Groups

"ISRAEL SENDING EXPERTS TO ASSIST IN BELARUS ATTACK

16:51 12 APR 2011

(AGI) Minsk - Israel is going to send nine experts to Belarus to help the authorities investigate yesterday's attack on the Minsk 'Oktjabriskaja' subway station, in which at least twelve people died and over one hundred were injured. According to the Jewish Embassy, the experts are expert pathologists and criminologists who will soon arrive in the capital of the former Soviet republic."

IDF Helps Belarus w Blast Probe - Inside Israel - News - Israel National News

What's hard to understand about that? Israel thought they had relevant experience and offered to help. Belarus accepted the offer. I guess there is something of a link nowadays between Israel and the ex Soviet countries because there are so many Israelis with that background.

In the Russian Empire Jews could only live at the border territory. Many of the soviet Jews were born in the Ukraine and in the Belarus. Idish was one of four state languages of the SSRB (Soviet Socialistic Republic of Byelorussia) (russian, belarussian, polish, idish).

The first president of the Israel and 3 Israeli prime ministers were born in Belarus.

Also there are many terrorist acts in Israel, so they have experience in such things.

Pale of Settlement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of Belarusian Jews - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
History of the Jews in Belarus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by Hanna

Number of people in Belarus: 9 mil
Number of executions in 2006: 9 executions

These are REALLY SCARY numbers for a small European country.

Originally Posted by Eric C.

These are REALLY SCARY numbers for a small European country.

Belarus is average size by European standards, neither large nor small.

Compare with:

Number of people in Saudi Arabia: 27 mil. (in '06)
Number of executions in 2006: 38

Number of people in the Singapore: 3.8 mil. (in '06)
Number of executions in 2006: 8

Not heard anyone complaining about executions there - but wait! One's got oil and is selling it to the powers to be in their preferred way... The other is a fininancial and shopping hub of Asia with good capitalist credentials - so they are exused too, right Eric?

Originally Posted by Hanna

Ok the comparison:

Number of people in Belarus: 9 mil
Number of executions in 2006: 9 executions

Number of people in the USA: 300 mil. (in '06)
Number of executions in 2006: 53

Ok - actually Belarus executes more people per capita per year than the USA, so my idea that the USA might be worse in this respect was wrong.

Number of people in Saudi Arabia: 27 mil. (in '06)
Number of executions in 2006: 38

Number of people in the Singapore: 3.8 mil. (in '06)
Number of executions in 2006: 8

I would rather compare how many people were murdered in these countries per million ppl and that with the lowest number would be the best in this competition. Anybody knows such statistics?

We should not compare Belarus with all states of the USA, because in many of them there is no capital punishment.
Let's compare Belarus with Oklahoma, infamous for its high executions per capita numbers.

Number of people in Belarus: 9 mil
Number of executions 1985-2010: 379 executions (the highest estimate which I found on Wikipedia)
Executions per year: 15,16
Executions per year per million people (rough estimate using current population): 1,68

Number of people in Oklahoma: 3,5 mil
Number of executions in 1976-2011: 96
Executions per year: 2,74
Executions per year per million people (rough estimate using current population): 0,78

We can see that Belarus scores 2 times higher than Oklahoma.
But note that number of executions in Belarus is declining sharply in the last decade, so I think it is no worse than Oklahoma now.

Now to Singapore.
Number of people in Singapore: 5 mil
Number of executions in 1991-2001: 410
Executions per year: 41
Executions per year per million people (rough estimate using current population): 8,2

OMG, Singapore scores 5 times higher than Belarus.

Number of people in Saudi Arabia: 27 mil
Number of executions in 2007-2010: 345
Executions per year: 86,25
Executions per year per million people (rough estimate using current population): 3,2

So we may order these countries like this:
Oklahoma (USA) < Belarus < Saudi Arabia < Singapore

The homocide statistics seem to be very contradictory. It's just not consistent between different sites.

Here is a map. Hopefully everybody is able to identify the countries we are discussing despite the names missing.




The Pale blue to Navy goes
Intentional homicide rate per 100,000.

0-1
1-2
2-5
5-10
10-20
>20

A colleague of mine was just in Belarus for 3 days - travelling back from Euro2012 in Kiev.
He was blown away by Minsk - he thought it was really elegant, incredibly clean and according to him, "great food". (From his descriptions it was clear that he liked Eastern European style food...)
I definitely agree that it is an elegant looking city, rebuilt with a lot of style after WW2. The suburbs are not chic or luxurious, but they are not grim either - lots of nature and nicely planned.

I heard him tell someone that Minsk was "like Paris" (.. hm.....Paris is much more crowded but has more shopping opportunities!) Although the wide boulevards, and elegant buildings - definitely reminds of Paris!

Plus summer is in full swing and he had a fantastic time - a local guy he met on the train showed him and his football fan friends around.......and told them all about what a terrible dictator Lukashenko allegedly is...

But my friend could not help noticing that things were in a pretty good shape around town in Minsk, no beggars, homeless or unemployed people loitering etc.

According to my friend, there are lots of new casinos in BY, because gambling got banned in Russia and now Belarus wants to clinch the Russian casino market. Hm...

My friend/colleague, who is a dyed-in-the-wool socialist really wanted to see "Soviet stuff" and WW2 memorials, but the guy who showed them around only showed them modern/cool places, like a micro brewery, food courts, shopping and a nightclub. So he's saying he wouldn't mind going back some time later to see those things they did not get around to.

For some reason I did not quite get, my friend did not like Kiev as much. The two cities are quite different in many ways, and perhaps his view was tainted by the fact that he had just watched Sweden booted from Euro2012.

Anyway, Minsk is a very interesting and nice place to visit!

У меня вызывает подозрение скорость раскрытия преступления и поспешность расстрела. Как будто знали кого ловить, и как будто хотели спрятать концы в воду.