Viktar Syarhel lost his Supreme Court appeal in Belarus against the death sentence for killing and decapitating eight-month-old baby Hanna (Picture: East2west)

The baby murderer who decapitated an eight-month old child will be shot in the back of the head by an executioner after losing his Supreme Court appeal.

The baby’s mother will now be sentenced to life imprisonment for the same October 2018 killing as the death penalty only applies to men under Belrusian law.

Viktar Syarhel, 48, and Nataliya Kolb, 26, were drinking together in the flat when they killed Hanna.

Her husband Leonid, 28, came home with the couple’s other children aged four and six, and saw his daughter’s severed head and a pool of blood.


A neighbour said: ‘He saw a scene out of the horror movies. The ambulance doctor fainted when she came in.’

Syarhel will be shot in the back of the head by an executioner, a technique popular under Stalin (Picture: East2west)

Hanna had 46 separate injuries on her body after being badly beaten and killed with a kitchen knife, the closed-door session of Brest Regional Court ruled it was carried out with ‘particular cruelty’ .



Syarhel immediately shook his head after the judge said ‘You have the right to submit a plea for mercy’, waiving his right to seek clemency from president Alexander Lukashenko.

Those facing the death penalty are blindfolded and forced to kneel before being shot in the back of the head.

Belarus is the only European country to still use capital punishment.

The EU and other international organisations have urged Belarus to stop using the death penalty. Since 1991 fall of the Soviet Union more than 400 men have been executed.

Natalya Kolb and accomplice Viktar Syarhel in court (Picture: Vecherny Brest)

Lukashenko, who has only spared one man during his more than quarter of a century in power, said last year he would continue to approve death penalty cases because people had voted for capital punishment in a referendum.

He said it was his duty and added: ‘Do you think I am happy about this death penalty, considering that I sign it, and then, put crudely, someone is shot?’

Legislators in the country are said to be reviewing whether to recommend ending the death penalty.

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