Lithuanian Justice Minister: It was inquiry concerning Byalyatski

Lithuanian Justice Minister Remigijus Šimašius had invited charter97.org editor Natallya Radzina to a meeting and disclosed details of the “bank scandal”.

For us, Belarusians, it is very unusual when a high-ranking official is ready to clear up his position, not only for his citizens, but for citizens of the neighbouring country. Remigijus Šimašius started the meeting with Natallya Radzina started with the words:

“I would like to express regret over the fact that Lithuania had disclosed financial information on activities of Ales Byalyatski, and this information was used by the Belarusian authorities against him, against the fighter for human rights. And all the responsibility for how this information will be used certainly falls on the Belarusian authorities, as the agreement on exchange of legal information is in force since 1993, and for 18 years it worked for hunting down real criminals. It is a rather active cooperation, as we are neighbouring countries. According to statistics, every year we receive about 500 inquiries from the Belarusian side, and virtually the same number of requests for granting legal aid are received from Lithuania.

The incident with Ales Byalyatski has raised new questions. We see that this system has its drawbacks, and it has become rather painful for us. The Lithuanian authorities will do everything for such things not to happen again in the future, and we will try to remedy the situation. I would like to underline that there have been many words and speculations on the issue saying that it could be connected with Lithuanian foreign policy. I am not authorized to comment on the foreign policy, but I would like to underline that there are no principle changes. If there were any changes in some political aspects, it would not influence which information about Belarusian citizens is provided by Lithuania. It is in Lithuania’s interests to cooperate with Belarus legally, but this should not harm the democratic forces of the country in any way. You should not think that Lithuania is give up on supporting your fight for freedom and democracy.

- Could you reveal the details of how the process of giving bank information on Byalyatski activities to the Belarusian authorities was taking place from the very start?

- On February 2 this year the Lithuanian Justice Ministry received an inquiry from the Justice Ministry of Belarus asking to provide this information. We, officials of the Justice Ministry, approached this as a routine question. Unfortunately, even those people who are famous in Belarus, their names are not always known even for highly educated people in Lithuania. We have made an inquiry to the banks. After information was received from banks, it was forwarded to the Justice Ministry of Belarus. And only a few months later, in late June, we received information from the Foreign Ministry of Lithuania that it could be used for political aims. On the same day, June 21, it was decided to stop providing financial information to Belarus. Certainly, to resume this cooperation is in our interests, but after we find mechanisms which would allow us to prevent this information from being used for repressions against pro-democracy activists.

- It had been reported that information on bank accounts of 400 Belarusians have been revealed by you. Is it true?

- I have heard so many interpretations already, and all of them are not completely correct. 400 persons is a number of inquiries Lithuania makes in Belarus annually according to statistics, and we receive 500 inquiries from Belarus.

- Do you have any quotas?

- No, it is just statistics over the previous few years. There are no quotas; it is done under agreement of 1992 which was ratified by the parliaments. There are no lists or anything like that.

- So on February 2 it was not a long list of 400 names, with Byalyatski among them, was it?

- No.

- So was it an inquiry about Byalyatski specifically.

- I cannot tell that exactly now, was it an inquiry concerning Byalyatski alone, or an inquiry about him and one more person. We did not have inquiries for a greater number of persons at once ever.

- And how many inquiries about bank accounts of Belarusians have you received this year?

- We cannot tell the exact number. I would like to reassure people who are now worried that information about them would be forwarded to the authorities, that we have stopped the entire flow of information now. We shall restart it when we would be sure that it would not do harm to Belarusian oppositionists. Now we are analyzing the data of this and previous years in order to find out whether other cases of revealing information about any other democratic activists had happened. And I hope that had not happened.

- And is it possible to publish the lists of people whose bank accounts had been disclosed to the Belarusian authorities, in order to comfort Belarusian democrats?

- This list could not be published certainly. But I can assure you that in the next few days we will have full information. If there would be people about whom we have some questions, we shall certainly warn them.

- And how the Belarusian side responded to breaking the legal cooperation by Lithuania?

- There is no official reaction so far. I think it is in best interests of the both states when people who steal cars or commit other, real crimes, are located and accused. And exchange of such information should be carried out. Even when we have some doubts about some individual cases. We will try to resume cooperation in exchanging criminal information.

- And don’t you think that in retaliation for your disinclination to disclose information about democratic activists the regime of Lukashenka would not give you information about criminals on the territory of Belarus?

- I would not like to speculate on the issue of how the Belarusian authorities would act. I think resuming normal cooperation would serve the interests of the both nations.

- There are undoubtedly many accounts of Belarusian officials in Lithuanian banks, and this money is unlikely to be earned in a righteous way certainly. The US adopted a decision to freeze accounts of Lukashenka’s associates long ago. The other thing is, Lukashenka’s henchmen do not keep their money in the US. Is it possible that their accounts would be disclosed and frozen in Lithuania?

- In this case the Justice Ministry does not play an important role here. We are just a corresponding side for foreign cooperation, we receive inquiries from other countries and forward these inquiries to other institutions. Definitely, if something changes in this world and in this region, if there is a decision of the European Union and the issue about bank accounts of Belarusian officials would come up, these accounts undoubtedly would be revealed and frozen.