Burial of an executed prisoner

The body of an executed prisoner is not handed over to the relatives for burial. Information about his burial site is not disclosed.

Refusal to hand the body of an executed prisoner over to his relatives for burial is an additional traumatizing factor for the family.

There are different rumours about the burial site of executed prisoners. In most cases the Northern cemetery is mentioned. Some relatives of the executed, if they found out about the execution promptly, go over all the cemeteries hoping to recognize “their” grave. It is known, that Svetlana Zhuk looked for the grave of her executed son Andrei Zhuk this way.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee considered the current procedure inhuman toward the relatives of the executed prisoners as far back as 2003 (“Bondarenko vs. Belarus”, “Liashkevich vs. Belarus”), thereafter demanding from the state to eliminate these infringements. However, Belarus ignored its obligations.