First pardoned persons at large. No political prisoners among them
- 22.12.2007, 16:21
The first group of pardoned persons was released form prisons, Vital Stukanau, deputy head of the department of corrections at the Ministry of Internal Affairs said.
According to him, only 18 people from the Minsk penal colony №1 were included in the amnesty. Both committed by former prisoners crimes and terms spent in prison were taken into account. The amnesty will continue gradually taking into consideration these factors.
The current amnesty can be applied only to convicted persons. The majority of those people got to correctional facilities for the first time. The innovation is that persons condemned for crimes, for which punishment less than 6 years of imprisonment is stipulated, will be released. Among them are minors, pregnant women, women and single men, having under-age children, pensioners, the disabled, suffering from TB, HIV-positive people, veterans of war, liquidators of consequences of the Disaster at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, persons, who were wounded on duties. Charged of certain economic offences such as theft or fraudulent practises, have right for the release. At the same time people who were members of organised groups and committed crimes won’t be amnestied. People convicted of crimes, which are not grave or not very dangerous to society can be set free, too. The reduction of term by one year for all prisoners is not possible any more.
It is planned that about 1.700 people from correctional facilities of closed type and about 850 people from correctional facilities of open type will be included into amnesty.
But there are no political prisoners among the people released. 6 people were put in Belarusian prisons on politically motivated grounds. Former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin was thrown into prison on 25 March, 2006 for organisation of mass protest actions against rigging the presidential election, and was sentenced to 5.5 years in penal colony of general regime.
Oppositional politician and political writer Andrei Klimau, who had been in prison twice for politically motivated grounds, was arrested on 3 April, 2007 for publication an article on the Internet and sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment in penal colony of high security.
Leader of the Young Front Zmiter Dashkevich was detained on 15 September, 2006 and sentenced to 1.5 year of imprisonment for participation in the unauthorised organisation.
Youth activist Artur Finkevich was detained in Minsk at night of 30 January, 2006 for drawing graffiti “We want a new one!”, and was sentenced to 2 years of deprivation of freedom for allegedly “hooliganism” on 10 May, 2006. The youth activist had another trial yesterday, where he was sentenced to 1.5 year of imprisonment for allegedly “misconduct”.
Entrepreneurs Mikola Autokhovich and Yury Lyavonau, owners of the biggest in Vaukavysk taxi business, were accused of tax evasion and sentenced to 3.5 years and to 3 years 5 months of imprisonment in the colony of high security. Indeed, the entrepreneurs were struggling for their rights against the local authorities. Mikola Autukhovich was on hunger strike for 73 days.
It should also be reminded that the European Commission made 12 offers to Belarus, after which fulfilment Europe will be ready to cooperate with the official Minsk. One of the main requirements is release of political prisoners.