Even bar association refuses to defend Sannikov's lawyer (Photo)

The bar association is not going to dispute a travel ban imposed on Maryna Kavaleuskaya.

On June 6, a lawyer of former presidential candidate and political prisoner Andrei Sannikov was barred from leaving Belarus. Maryna Kavaleuskaya was told in the citizenship and migration office the travel ban was imposed because the Ministry of Defence had put her on the blacklist as a draft dodger. The district military enlistment office refutes this information and confirms Kavaleuskaya is not liable for military service.

The lawyer told charter97.org website about her further actions:

“Regarding the fact of denied exit from Belarus as an attempt to press on a lawyer, which is forbidden by law, I applied to the Minsk City Bar and the Republican Bar Association on June 7 demanding to issue an official response to violation of the constitutional right to freedom of movement and prevent applying pressure on a lawyer, a member of the bar. I attached documents from the citizenship and migration office and the district military enlistment office to the memo. Besides, I informed the bar leadership about filing complaints to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Tsentralny district court of Minsk.

The chair of the Republican Bar Association answered 12 days later:

'...You were banned to cross the border during your vacation, when you were not performing your professional duties. In this regard, you should use the given right in connection with the ban to cross the state border.'

This position of the Republican Bar Association is piteous. By giving such an answer, the bar leadership avoids performing its primary function – defence of the rights of lawyers set in the bar charter and guaranteed by the law.”