Moscow/Minsk - Belarus executed on Wednesday a former police officer convicted of serial murder and sentenced to death on May 22 by the country's Supreme Court, news agency Interfax reported from Minsk. Alexander Sergeychik, a former guard at a regional Interior Ministry branch, was convicted of six murders of "particular cruelty," as well as on further counts including rape, conspiracy to murder and illegal possession of weapons and explosives.
Belarus is the only European country that still practices capital punishment. Neighbouring Russia imposed a moratorium on the death sentence when it joined the Council of Europe human rights body.
Executions in Belarus are carried out with a gunshot to the back of the head, relatives are informed after the fact, and the burial site is kept secret.
Nine people were sentenced to death in Belarus during 2006, according to human rights activists critical of the country with the world's highest rate of incarceration after the United States and Russia.
President Aleksander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been dubbed Europe's last dictator by Western critics for his suppression of opposition in the nation of 10 million.
