Harry Pahanyaila: Criminal case must been opened over election fraud

Belarusian lawyers think the General Prosecutor’s Office didn’t fulfil its duties regarding the fact of electoral fraud in the presidential elections 2006.

We remind that the authors of the Petition of 50, who demanded to instigate a criminal case against Alyaksandr Lukashenka over his statement on rigging in 06 presidential elections, received an answer on November 9 signed by Prosecutor General Ryhor Vasilevich. The letter says: “... the General Prosecutor’s Office does not have data on any violations of the norms of the Electoral Code committed during vote counting and announcement of the election results.”

The website www.udf.by asked famous Belarusian lawyers and human rights activists to comment on the reply of Vasilevich.

Syarhei Alfer thinks “the answer of the General Prosecutor’s Office can be called only a run-around reply”. He says “another variant can’t be expected” if a prosecutor general is appointed by the president.

Former court of the Constitutional Court of Belarus Mikhail Pastukhou agrees with this opinion: “The General Prosecutor’s Office didn’t answer to the point of the questions raised in the Petition of 50.”

Experts think the Belarusian authorises to their best not to set such petitions afloat.

“Under current conditions objective consideration of such requests is impossible,” Pastukhou believes. However, this doesn’t mean nothing should be done.

Lawyer of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Harry Pahanyaila thinks the General Prosecutor’s Office must open a criminal case over the Petition of 50.

“Only the criminal case would allow to find out if the elections were rigged or not,” the member of the BHC executive board says.

“Firstly, if it was Alyaksandr Lukashenka to spread this information, he must have been summoned for questioning. He must have told where he had this information from,” Pahanyaila says. Then, initial information about expression of will, in particular all protocols, must have been ejected, members of electoral commissions and observers must have been questioned...”

Experts think the General Prosecutor’s Office has and had in 2006 enough facts to instigate a criminal case over electoral fraud. Numerous violations recorded by observers show the gross violation of the Constitution and electoral legislation.

The run-around reply of Vasilevich says that in our country, “not all people are equal before the law, which is a nonsense in any law-based state”.

“Besides, this answer demonstrates that not all citizens of the country fall under legal control,” Alfer concluded.