Ministry of Justice washes its hands

The legality of administrative detentions of people during “silent” protests must be checked by a prosecutor’s office, the Belarusian Ministry of Justice says.

“The questions of legal assessment of actions taken by law enforcement officers do not fall within the established by law competence of the Ministry of Justice,” the Ministry of Justice notes in the official reply to a request from Interfax-Zapad news agency in connection with legal assessment of the actions of law enforcement officers, who detained people during “silent” protests.

The Ministry of Justice reminds that “in accordance with article 125 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, supervision of strict and uniform implementation of laws, decrees, edicts and other normative acts by ministries and other bodies subordinate to the Council of Ministers as well as by local representative and executive bodies, enterprises, organizations and institutions, public associations, officials and citizens shall be entrusted to the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus and subordinate prosecutors. The prosecutor's office shall exercise supervision of implementation of laws at investigation of administrative offences.”

“Under article 128 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, the competence of prosecutor’s offices defined by the Law of the Republic of Belarus on Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Belarus provides for the right of a prosecutor to check the legality of administrative detention of a person and applying administrative sanctions on him when carrying out supervision of implementation of laws (part 1 of article 26 of the Law).

In accordance with part 4 of article 26 of the Law, if violations of law are found, a prosecutor have the right in limits of his competence to release the persons subject to illegal administrative detention on his order and give written instructions concerning cases of administrative offences as it is provided for in the legislation as well as send them to the agencies investigating the administrative process,” the letter of the Ministry of Justice says.

The Ministry’s reply also notes that “power of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus and his subordinate prosecutors in carrying out supervision of strict and uniform implementation of laws of the Republic of Belarus by the law enforcement bodies is provided for in article 46 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus On Law Enforcement Bodies of the Republic of Belarus”.

As reported by media, over 1700 persons were detained in Belarus during five protest actions called “revolution by social networks”. Viasna Human Rights Centre reports most people (980) were detained in Minsk. Many of protesters were fined or arrested.

Courts punished participants of protests of June 15, 22 and 29 with fines from 2 to 30 basic units (one basic unit if 35,000 Belarusian ruble). Since July 3, courts usually sentence people to arrests from 2 to 15 days. In particular, 193 persons were tried for taking part in silent protests on July 6 in Minsk and other Belarusian cities, human rights activists informs. As human rights organizations estimate, 92 persons stood trials in Minsk.