«Palatka» adopted law on amnesty. Will political prisoners be released?

A draft law “On amnesty of some persons committed crimes” was adopted by the ‘house of representatives” of the “national assembly” of Belarus on Friday. About 3.500 prisoners can be amnestied from the places of service the punishment including those from places of deprivation of freedom – about 1.600 people.

According to the law, only the prisoners can be amnestied. Earlier, the people the cases against whom were on the preliminary investigation in courts could be included in the amnesty, now relief from criminal responsibility can take place only in individual basis on the decision of the head of state according to his order providing the relief from criminal responsibility for the people who helped crime detection.

For the first time the people who made compensation on entered the legal force sentence or another decision by court will be also included into amnesty.

Besides, those who have been convicted for the crimes with less than 6 years of imprisonment according to the criminal laws will be released from punishment. The persons in question are the juvenile, pregnant women, women and lonely men who have non-adult children, pensioners, the handicapped, consumptives, HIV positive, war veterans, participants of the remediation works after the Chernobyl Power Station accident, the persons hurt during the military service regardless from the term of spent by them punishment.

The people who have spent no less than one third of their term of restraint, imprisonment, commitment to disciplinary military unit, and those sentenced to arrest regardless from its terms. It also concerns the imprisoned for serious economic crimes: theft, false pretences (except for the people committed the crimes in an organized group) and who have spent no less than one third of their term of punishment.

At the same time the people who have already been released by amnesty or free pardon and who have committed an intentional crime again. It also concerns the people maliciously breaking the rules of the place of their imprisonment, who committed an especially dangerous repeated relapse into crime.

The people in whose attitude the death penalty was replaced by life imprisonment, or life imprisonment was replaced by imprisonment, sentenced to life imprisonment for organizing a criminal group or the participation in it or imprisoned for banditism, and crime fugitives who were put on wanted list will not be included in amnesty.

Will the political prisoners be released?

The Belarusian authorities deny there are political prisoners in the country. “There are no political article in the criminal code, so, there are no political prisoners”, - defense minister Uladzimir Naumau said journalists after the parliament adopted the law on amnesty.

According to Naumau, the people regarded by the opposition as political prisoners were “sentenced for criminal offences”. The minister also said “if the people are included in the amnesty, they will be released”.

We remind that the international community suspects Naumau himself and other high ranked Belarusian officials in their involvement in the kidnapping and killing of the leaders of Belarusian opposition. For that he is denied entry to the EU countries and the USA.

Today Aliaksandr Kazulin, Andrei Klimau, Zmiter Dashkevich, Artur Finkevich, Mikola Autukhovich and Yury Liavonau are in prison accused on political motives. The normalization of the relations with Europe depends on how their fate will be determined.