Aleh Vouchak: KGB puts pressure on lawyers to replace them with own appointees

This tendency is extremely dangerous, because any citizen of Belarus can be deprived of the guaranteed right to independent legal aid.

It was reported earlier that secret services officers have recently come to search the lawyer, who defends presidential candidate Alyaksei Mikhalevich.

The KGB officer came to a legal advice office where Aleh Aheeu works. They wanted to seize all documents, including those regarding to the case of Alyaksei Mikhalevich. They showed a document signed by the deputy head of a KGB department.

“The letter of the KGB didn’t give them grounds for such actions. I think it was unlawful,” Aleh Aheeu commented on the actions by the secret service to Belsat TV channel.

“There are attempts to intimidate lawyers in order to make them refuse from working with political cases,” human rights activist Aleh Vouchak said. He reminds that two lawyer have already refused to defend Iryna Khalip due to pressure from the Ministry of Justice. It is made by the authorities to appoint own defence lawyer to conduct cases.

“There is a great danger that such lawyers won’t fulfill their duties in a proper way and hide information from the media and public,” Aleh Vouchak warns.

According to him, this tendency is extremely dangerous, because any citizen of Belarus can be deprived of the guaranteed right to independent legal aid. This can be proved by the fact that lawyer Mikhail Vouchak, who defended officer of General Prosecutor’s Office Svyatlana Baikova, was searched. KGB officers seized all documents relating to the case, even drafts of his speeches in court. As a result Mikhail Vouchak applied to resign from the bar.