Constitutional court refused to give estimation to “political” article of Criminal Code
- 9.02.2010, 11:41
Instead of considering the issue of revoking Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, the Constitutional Court has sent a runaround.
Back in December 2009 Kiryl Atamanchyk, an activist of “Young Front”, filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court. The activist asked the chairman of the Constitutional Court Pyotr Miklashevich to consider his appeal and give an expert opinion whether Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus is consonant to Article 36 of the Constitution and Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a human rights centre “Viasna” informs.
«On January 28, 2009 I received a runaround from the Constitutional Court of Belarus signed by the secretariat’s head A. Yuraha, in which he denies me a right to address the Constitutional Court,” Atamanchyk said.
The answer of the head of the secretariat of the Constitutional Court was as follows:
“Proposals to the Constitutional Court to give expert opinion whether laws are constitutional could be made by the president of Belarus the chamber of representatives, the council of the republic, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Economic Court and the Council of Ministers. Other persons can only lodge a motion to these government agencies”.
“I believe that the Secretariat is not eligible to deny me my constitutional right to apply to governmental agencies,” the Young Front member is indignant.
As said by Atamanchyk, he does not agree to the formal reply and is already writing a complaint against the actions of the secretariat’s head. The young person is set to continue demanding consideration of his address to the Constitutional Court.
It should be noted that Kiryl Atamanchyk has already made an appeal to the UN Committee on Human Rights, informing about the violation of his right of association by the Republic of Belarus.
It should be noted that on December 2, 2005 in the second reading the “chamber of representatives” passed the amendment to the Criminal and Criminal Procedural Code of Belarus which increased responsibly “for actions aimed against a person and public security”. The new article of the Criminal Code 193-1 adopted in the run-up to the presidential election in 2006 was used to combat with organisations undesirable for the regime.
Since the time the criminal liability for activities on behalf of unregistered associations came into force, 17 persons were convicted under Article 193-1. No not-guilty verdicts have been recorded by human rights activists since then.