A hammer killer has been sentenced to death for murdering two women he met at a nightclub.
Alyaksandr Asipovich struck 27-year-old Alesya Klimava 77 times with a hammer and his fists in Babruysk city, Belarus.
Her friend Krystsina Krushkina, 26, died from multiple stab wounds and a court heard how the 36-year-old murderer had made plans to dismember his victims' bodies.
Asipovich confessed to the killings, but has been sentenced to death. In Belarus, those sentenced to death are forced to kneel before being shot by a state executioner in the back of the head.
Shortly before the two women were killed, Krushkina had made a desperate call to Belarus police from the man's apartment to say they were barricaded into a bathroom and he intended to murder them.
The killer confessed to murdering the women. He pleaded in court in Belarus not to be sentenced to death so he could pay compensation to the families of the victims.
'I don't know what provoked me to do this,' said Asipovich.
'I am a kind and sentimental person. I regret what I did and ask everyone to forgive me.'
He told judge Mikhail Melnikaw: 'I ask the court to give me a chance to stay alive, to work and pay money to families of the dead.'
But the judge decreed he should be executed for the brutal murders.