By Brian Whitmore
The autocratic regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka has apparently decided to take off the gloves when dealing with Belarusian citizens who have been acting to disrupt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Belarusian parliament is considering legislation that would impose the death penalty on those convicted of attempted acts of terrorism, including the sabotage of rail lines to disrupt the movement of Russian troops to Ukraine. If enacted, this would mark a dramatic expansion of Belarus’s existing death penalty law, which currently restricts capital punishment to a small number of serious offenses including acts of terrorism that result in loss of life, particularly brutal killings, and multiple murders.
Vladimir Andreychenko, the speaker of Belarus’s lower house of parliament, made clear whom the change in the death penalty statute was directed against. “Destructive forces are continuing terrorist extremist activity by trying to rock the situation in Belarus, provoking domestic instability and conflicts,” Andreychenko said. “Actions are being taken to disable railway equipment and tracks, objects of strategic importance. There can be no justification for the actions of terrorists.”
The measure passed Belarus’s lower house of parliament on April 27. It must still pass the upper house and be signed by Lukashenka before it becomes law.