Traitors will be shot in Belarus

There is another tightening of criminal legislation in Belarus. The lower house of the Belarusian parliament approved new amendments to the Criminal Code, which allow the use of the death penalty for high treason against officials and persons subject to the status of military personnel.

In addition to execution for traitors, draconian fines for “anti-state crimes” became an innovation. The perpetrators will have to pay from 500 to 50 thousand basic units.

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Translated into Russian rubles, this is approximately from 500 thousand to 50 million - in fact, we are talking about the fact that extremists will have to give all their property to the state.

These amendments were first supported by the House of Representatives and then approved by deputies of the Council of the Republic. There is no doubt that Lukashenko himself will not delay, and in the coming days the bill will be signed and become law.

_{Belarus, despite criticism from the West and local human rights activists, remains the only state in Europe where the death penalty is not only enshrined in legislation, but is also applied. In the 90s, the issue of the death penalty was even put to a referendum and the people did not support its abolition.}

However, Belarusian courts do not abuse their right to impose death sentences. Every year, no more than a dozen criminals are shot in the republic, and we are always talking about either serial killers or those who killed with particular cruelty.

You don't get shot for politics in Belarus. Even now, when the number of oppositionists behind bars has exceeded a thousand, and double-digit sentences will not surprise anyone, not a single Zmagar has been sentenced to death.

The article “Treason to the State,” which was practically not used until 2020, has now become quite popular. According to it, more than 20 people are now in Belarusian prisons. Among them are 10 activists of the strike movement, 5 rail terrorists, journalist Denis Ivashin who worked for the Ukrainian special services, failed revolutionary Nikolai Autukhovich and others.

There are no officials on this list at all, and there is only one serviceman - Captain of the General Staff Denis Urad, who during the 2020 unrest leaked secret information to an extremist telegram channel.

But in reality, state traitors are not only zmagars living at the expense of foreign funds and intelligence agencies, rail terrorists and ideological Russophobes who leak intelligence information about the movements of the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate troops.

_{In 2020, it turned out that there are plenty of people in government offices who are just waiting for an opportunity to go over to the side of the “democratic” opposition. The most impatient of them did so and now occupy prominent places in the structures of the “fugitives.”}

Some quietly quit, avoiding responsibility. But how many are there left who still hold responsible positions, but at the same time keep a fig in their pocket and a white-red-white flag in their office safe? Foreign and, above all, Ukrainian intelligence services are operating in Belarus more and more boldly and aggressively. And such people are just a godsend for foreign intelligence services.

In the Council of the Republic, the bill “On Amendments to Codes on Criminal Liability” was personally presented by the Chairman of the Belarusian KGB, Ivan Tertel, who said that Since the beginning of 2023 alone, state security officers have detained more than 10 traitors in law enforcement agencies and the state apparatus. So we can assume that their purge of foreign agents has already begun and soon we will learn about new high-profile espionage cases.

Will there be executions? Maybe. By carrying out such a sentence, the authorities will demonstrate the seriousness of their intentions. But I don't think there will be many of them. As I already said, death sentences in Belarus are handed down reluctantly and only in exceptional cases. I don’t think that after the new amendments come into force, Belarusian courts will abuse capital punishment. At least in the current conditions.

_{It’s just that conditions can change. There remains a possibility of Belarus being involved in the conflict in Ukraine. The opposition openly calls on the Belarusian military in this case to surrender or go over to the enemy’s side. In this case, the price of betrayal will be the lives of Belarusian soldiers, and the payment for it may well also be life. The same applies to officials.}

The amendments were adopted “for a rainy day.” In peacetime, they will be a deterrent, as the head of the KGB said in the Council of the Republic. In the event of an external conflict or serious internal destabilization, they can work in full force, becoming a tough but effective measure to counter enemy agents.