Crossed Out

---

Stanislav and Ilya Kostsew to court in January

now Each day, it is possible for Two men to be executed in the Only European country where the death penalty still Exists - But your family will never know, if you were shot, or where They were buried.

Five months ago, Hanna Kostseva In Court was, if her Two Brothers , Stanislav and Ilya, who were at the age of 19 and 21, sentenced to death for the murder.

"When The Judge read out The Verdict ," apply a exceptional measure of punishment in the form of execution to smack the people in the room started," she says.

"First of all, Only a place to start, then another one followed, then a third, and hear in the entire hall, Only applause. For me, in this moment, it was like My Own life was Cut Short . "

Hanna says that she then approached The Cage in which her brothers had pleaded guilty to the murder of one of their neighbors. Managed to squeeze in close to you and hug you through the bars, and promised that she would do everything possible to save her life.

Hanna looks at a photo of herself and her Three Brothers , one of which is sealed as children of

In reality, their fate was already.

A month earlier, The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko , had a Russian radio station said that the case under his personal control.

"you are scum, there is No Other word for it. You have been in trouble and were punished. They killed A Teacher , just because you wanted to save Two of their sister, The Children . Your sister is a Nothing - an anti-social element. The Teacher was just trying to protect The Children and take them from The Family . These Two stabbing were you the whole night. "

The Brothers was dismissed appeals against their conviction on the 22. May. After that the Only remaining option was to ask The President for mercy.

A young Stanislaw (on The Right ), with Hanna And One of her sons

His decision was probably a Tuesday, 2. June, and if he had decided to spare them, it would probably already be in The News , The Silence is terrible.

In his quarter of a century, as Russia knows, the first and Only President, Lukashenko has added to mild Only once.

Natalya Kostseva, The Brothers ' mother, was not personally at The Time of sentencing, even for a reason, to understand that can be difficult for someone from Another Country .

The Story goes back 19 years, to The Day , When Her Husband died. Stanislaw, the youngest of their four children, was then five months old. Ilya was already Two .

A photo of Natalya and Her Husband on their Wedding Day

feed her family, Natalia worked as a milkmaid on a collective farm. Then she got a job in a transport company, where your shifts in delivery, sometimes late into The Night . Stanislaw, Ilya and her older brother were often left in the care of Hanna , the oldest child.

Natalya admits she was not a perfect mother. Visit of social workers would enjoy a homemade cake, But to drink also note in their report that They had been.

Anyway, The Family photos show a younger woman, hugging, well-dressed children and grandchildren, protecting.

Natalya with Ilya (on the left) and a grandson of

Natalya held for 13 years. It was, as Stanislav and Ilya 14 and 16, were that They were Finally gone for the fight and skip school, and in a state-run children's Home .

In Belarus, When Children are in care, have to pay for their Parents - in this case, Natalia - The Bill . You still owe than 10,000 Belarusian rubles, or about $4,000, so each month a third of their meager salary is removed from The State , and this is going to continue for The Next eight years, After Her sons' execution.

This is not The Reason , Natalya was able to travel, visit you in prison in The Eastern city of Mogilev, and could not attend the meeting, if you were convicted of: after a few payments, a court had ruled that They could not leave had missed the capital, Minsk, until The Debt was paid in full.

Since their sons were arrested in April 2019, your Only contact with them was by Letter .

Natalya Kostseva holding letters from their sons

The Family best, that the Two Young Men are murderers and deserve to be punished.

"I'm not justifying, you are in any Way guilty, you should not take the life of a person. In a moment, she says crossed from someone's life as well as your own, and our," her sister, Hanna .

It happened soon after Stanislaw's 18 birthday, if Finally liberated from The Children 's Home - he had gone to stay with Hanna in The House in which They lived as children in the city of Cherykaw, in the vicinity of The Russian border.

Ilya had the concern on his 18th birthday, Two years earlier.

But no joy on the encounter didn't last long. Only a few days later, the Two Brothers went to take revenge on a neighbor - A Teacher who had complained to Social Services about Hanna , The Children and suggested that They be placed in care. Stanislav and Ilya stabbed to death to put to death then The House On Fire and were quickly arrested.

After the applause in the courtroom, Hanna says, she was rushed out of the city.

on one occasion, while her partner and her eldest brother were away, working in Russia, someone even tried to break her door, she says. They then moved into a tiny apartment in a former military barracks, 140 km (90 Miles ) away, sometimes six or seven hours of travel on trains and buses from Mogilev, carrying heavy bags of food for her brothers.

They met each of them separately, because They are forbidden to meet or even write letters.

It was Only after the judgment that Hanna learned that other countries in Europe, including neighboring Russia and Ukraine, have the death penalty. It was a bitter discovery.

murderer should be sentenced to life in prison, she says.

"Not everyone in prison is leaving your life, But you have To Live it, to endure it And Then be released, with a feeling of remorse. The death penalty denies The Right to regret. "

death in the Minsk

In Court , The Brothers asked The Victim 's family for forgiveness, and both have since asked to see a priest, Hanna says.

you have now been moved to a prison in the center of Minsk, close to the Gorki-Theater, a museum of history of Belarusian cinema, McDonald's and TGI Friday 's".

A Letter from Ilya is decorated with The Words "your good-for-Nothing son"

It is an Open Secret that this has been carried out, where executions for decades.

"Everything is exactly as it was in the Soviet time," says Human Rights activist Andrey Poluda. "Not a thing has changed. The relatives are not the bodies of the executed prisoners were, They are not told The Time of death, place of burial is unknown. "

A single hangman uses a gun, according to a former Director of the plant, Oleg Alkayev, who now Lives in The West .

"During The Execution , a doctor is present later confirmed the death. A Prosecutor is also present. Sometimes, When I'm on the metro in Minsk, I look around me and I Wonder if a person who is a part of this system," Poluda says the travel now.

Natalya not come to terms with what has happened. "If, God Forbid , I lose you, I will be able to continue To Live - I want to," she says.

sometime after The Execution has taken place, it receives belongings of a package with your sons, and an official Letter . In it is said that the death penalty was carried out, and Nothing More .

>read Tatsiana Melnichuk and Tatsiana Yanutsevich report

Earlier this year, Two guards who worked in a prison in Yaroslavl, North-East of Moscow, were sent to prison for abuse of a prisoner. Despite official claims that Russian prisons are Cleaning Up their act, the prisoners, their relatives and Human Rights activists tell a very different story. The Bbc 's Oleg Boldyrev you examine the last case.

alexander lukashenko, belarus, capital punishment

Source of news: bbc.com