Pavel Sapelka: The very few political prisoners could be amnestied
- 24.05.2012, 9:26
The Corrections department of the Interior Affairs Ministry of Belarus has prepared the draft law “On Amnesty”, which has already been submitted for consideration of the government.
Will the political prisoners be amnestied? Radio Svaboda addressed this question to human rights activists.
As said by Pavel Sapelka, the law on amnesty is one of the most complex according to its structure, and it has its peculiarities:
“Considering the circumstances which are to be outlined the law on amnesty, it is most likely that at best just a few political prisoners could be included into the law out of those who had not been convicted grave crimes. I can name those who are almost sure are unlikely to be released after passing of this law: they are Mikalai Statkevich and Mikalai Autukhovich. Those who are serving the sentences in prisons, are undoubtedly considered persistent violators of the penitentiary regime. As a rule, they are never amnestied. And the rest could hope for it, to this or that extent, either for their term to be shortened, or for their release from further serving of the sentence. If we speak about mechanisms of release and minimal exoneration of political prisoners, the law on amnesty is not that kind of instrument which could be considered effective for that.”
As said by a former political prisoner, the head of the informational and educational institution “Platforma” Andrei Bandarenka, only those could be included to the list of the amnestied, who are not “malignant violators” of the incarceration rules. He forecasts that in such a case three political prisoners could be amnestied maximally:
“First of all, Paval Sevyarynets should be amnestied, as he has all the possibilities for that. And no one else, in fact. Zmitser Dashkevich – no, Mikalai Statkevich – not for sure, Frantskevich would not be included in the list. Everyone should be judged by the state of their personal files, whether there had been records for insubordination or failure to fulfill some requirements, for violations of the rules. Even if Statkevich or Dashkevich would fall under this amnesty, I am sure that there would be some details found, which would be applied for political prisoners only. The political prisoners in Belarus now are a bargaining chip. And the authorities certainly would not release any of them on legal grounds. The amnesty which had been announced, is mostly aimed at misleading public opinion. Though, it had been clear from the start that the key political prisoners would not be released due to the amnesty.”