Ministry of Justice to hold unscheduled qualification exams for lawyers

The Ministry of Justice has ordered to hold unscheduled qualification exams for lawyers of the Minsk City Bar and regional bars from June 15 to September 15, 2011.

The main department of justice of regional and Minsk city executive committees have been ordered to form territorial certifying commissions by June 5, 2011, consisting of representatives of main departments of justice, bodies of lawyer’s administration, members of the local councils, representatives of courts and judicial science.

Examination of chairpersons, deputy chairpersons of the republican, regional, and Minsk city bars, heads of city and district legal offices, heads of other agencies providing legal services is carried out by the Certifying Commission on Legal Practice of the Republic of Belarus.

The examination is to assess quantitative and qualitative indicators of lawyers’ work on different classes of cases, rendering free legal assistance, judicial education of public, disciplinary sanctions, warnings and instructions of justice bodies to rectify violations of the law.

We remind that the Ministry of Justice started a real war on lawyers after the events on December 19, 2010, when hundreds of democratic activists faced persecution and presidential candidates were thrown in prison. Under pressure from the Ministry of Justice, head of the Minsk City Bar Alyaksandr Pylchanka was dismissed, lawyers of political prisoners, including Pavel Sapelka who defended presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, were disbarred.