Ministry of Justice inspecting lawyers

The Ministry of Justice of Belarus started auditing all legal aid offices of Minsk City Bar Association.

As staff of one of the offices said, the inspection was an excessively technical question. According to them, conduct of cases is being examined and the inspection is not related to activity of certain lawyers, nn.by writes.

We remind that the Ministry of Justice made a recommendation concerning four lawyers who work with the cases of persons charged with mass riot on December 19. It is known that one of them was Pavel Sapelka, who defends former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov. The reason for the appeal of the Justice Ministry was lawyers’ indignation, as they cannot meet with their clients, and their criticism of the judicial system. Officials demanded to bring them to disciplinary responsibility. However, the Minsk City Bar Association didn’t find facts of violation in the activity of their colleagues.