BELARUS: FOREIGN MINISTER, ‘SOCIETY NOT READY TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY’

in an interview posted on the ministry's official website, Foreign Minister Vladimir Makey said Belarusian society is not ready to abolish death penalty.
"We should advance very carefully and cautiously" in the issue of abolishing the capital punishment, the minister said. "This issue should not be advanced artificially. Everything should happen naturally. Society should get ready that this initiative to cancel the death penalty is implemented," he said.
As to introducing a temporary moratorium on capital punishment, "if relevant pre-conditions emerge and, indeed, it will be obvious objectively that it is necessary to introduce moratorium on death penalty and if this is justified in all respects, I do not rule out that this question could be discussed by authorities," Makey said.