Aleh Vouchak: “Kazulin got a term of almost 6 years for oppositional rally, while murderers got from 2 to 5 years”

An exceptionally mild sentence to murderers of “arsonist from Pukhavichy” established a precedent in court practice and once again demonstrates that Belarus is not a rule-of-law state, the human rights activists say.

A human rights activist and a former investigator of the prosecutor’s office Aleh Vouchak said in an interview to the press-centre of the Charter’97, that to sentence to the term from 2 to 5 years for a brutal killing is a legal nonsense.

“It is certainly nonsense for this kind of crime and for judicial practice,” the human rights activist said to the Charter’97 press-centre. “For such a crime it is a very lenient sentence. It can create a precedent in court practice, when mild sentences would be pronounced for grave crimes. Statistics show that every year the number of domestic murders is growing in Belarus. Such precedents simply shouldn’t be created. Sentences from 15 to 25 years of imprisonment in a colony with a reinforced regime are passed for such crimes”.

As said by Aleh Vouchak, the verdict to murderers of “arsonist from Pukhavichy” should have been passed at the bidding of the regime.

“There is no doubt that the judge was not passing the verdict individually,” Aleh Vouchak said. “It is a politically motivated decision. It destroys the image of the Belarusian court system which had been already undermined. It shows once again that there are no independent courts in Belarus. The verdict to murderers of the “arsonist from Pukhavichy” could be compared to verdicts to Belarusian political prisoners. The court has sentenced to the terms from 2 to 5 years for the brutal group killing. And do you remember how a judgment to Alyaksandr Kazulin (former presidential candidate in Belarus) was passed? He was sentenced to 5.5 years of imprisonment for organizing protests against rigging presidential election results. This fact demonstrates once again that we do not live in a rule-of-law state”.

As we have informed, on April 14, the Homel region court delivered a judgement to four dwellers of Pukhavichy village of the Zhytkavichy district in the case of a murder of their village mate Mikalai Makarevich, suspected by them of arsons in the village.

Investigators found that a few lethal blows on his head by a head of axe. Then his corpse was set on fire.

The court found 4 dwellers of the village guilty of a murder (article 139, part 2). This article provides from 8 to 25 years of imprisonment, or life sentence, or capital punishment.

Despite of the grave nature of the crime, Homel regional court passed extremely mild sentences. One of the murderers was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment in a medium security penal colony, another – to 3 years of imprisonment in a medium security penal colony. Two other murderers got two years of restraint of liberty.

The court used article 70 of the Criminal Court (less strict punishment than it is provided for an offence). As we have informed, on April 13 the prosecutor demanded to sentence them to the terms from 8 to 14 years of imprisonment in medium security penal colony.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka defended the lynchers in public.