Belarusian Justice Ministry goes on to palm off with promises
1- 13.05.2010, 16:55
The Justice Ministry of Belarus once again stated its intention to revoke the "political" Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code for activities on behalf of unregistered organisations.
The international public association "Civil Belarus" (the Czech Republic) has recieved an answer signed by Deputy Minister of Justice Ihar Tushynski. This answer is a response to the request of the organisation to inform about the progress of considering the possibilty to take Article 193-1off the Criminal Code.
"Appropriate authorities continue to work on studying the issue of possible excluding from Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus the norm about the criminal responsibilty... and exchanging it by an administrative responsibilty. At the moment there is no final position on this issue has been fashioned yet," I. Tushynski wrote.
"Such formal replys rather show a desire to dust eyes and delay the issue till it is forgotten instead of taking real decisions. However it won't happen this way. Our campaign will continue to bring forth the problem of existance of Article 193-1 and lobby its abolition, both in Belarus and through international structures," said in an interview to "Belarusain partisan" Alena Valynets, a coordinator of "Stop 193-1!" campaign of the NGO Assembly.
From the moment this article came in force in 2006, 17 persons were condemned. None of them recieved an acquitting judgement.
On May 12 in the framework of the Universal periodic review in the UN Human Rights Council (Geneva) a discussion on the problem of the repressive Article 193-1 was held. It was organised by the NGO Assembly in cooperation with the international alliance CIVICUS and the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH). During the examination of the governmental report of Belarus delegations of Israel, Ireland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Belgium demanded the offical Minsk and those Belarusian officials that were present to annul Article 193-1 which punishes activities on behalf of unregistered organisations".
