BELARUS: FIRST DEATH PENALTIES OF 2020 HANDED DOWN

January 12, 2020:

The Mogilev Regional Court sentenced two brothers, who were found guilty of committing a murder in a particularly violent manner, to the death penalty on 10 January 2020, the Human Rights Center Viasna said.
"Today, on January 10, a judge of the Mogilev Regional Court sentenced two brothers, Ilya Kostin and Stanislav Kostin, to the death penalty at an offsite hearing in Cherikov. They were charged with murdering their teacher, who was also their neighbor, and setting her house on fire," the center said.
The sentence can be appealed at a higher court.
In April 2019, while extinguishing a fire at a detached house in Cherikov, emergency services workers found the body of its 47-year-old owner. Numerous stab wounds were found on the corpse. The murder suspects were identified shortly after; they were two brothers with prior criminal records, aged 19 and 21, who had had a quarrel with the woman the day before.