Minsk City Court replaces death penalty with life in prison for two murderers

The Minsk City Court on Monday sentenced Aliaksandr Zhylnikau and Vyachaslau Sukharak who murdered a young couple in Alibegov street to life in prison.The prosecutor had requested the death sentence for the two men. Alina Shulganava, accused of organizing the murder, received 12 years in a colony while the prosecutor had asked the court to sentence her to 15 years in a regular security prison, human rights defender Andrei Paluda told Euroradio.

The young couple was murdered in December 2015. Alina Shulganava, 27 from Minsk wanted to keep the man who had earlier left her for another woman. Initially, she hired a man to kidnap the rival but the plan did not work out. Later, Shulganava paid her 44-yeard-old neighbor and his 23-year-old friend to beat the woman. However, the hired men killed both the woman and Shulganava's ex, robbed the apartment and ran away.

There were 29 life in prison sentences in the past five years in Belarus.

2016: 7 life-in-prison sentences

2015: 7 

2014: 7

2013: 2

2012: 4