Women protesting «unfair» judgments fail to meet with prosecutor general

A group of women protesting "unfair" court judgments pronounced against them or in cases of their relatives suffered another setback Thursday as Prosecutor General Alyaksandr Kanyuk refused to receive them.

“The prosecutor general was to be receiving members of the public today, but we were told that visits by the public had been cancelled,” Tamara Syarhey, a lawyer who leads the group, told BelaPAN.

Ms. Syarhey said that some 30 women had arrived at the Prosecutor General’s Office. They left a petition, their 21st petition addressed to the prosecutor general, asking him to make good on his promise to meet with representatives of the group upon their written application, said Ms. Syarhey. “None of us was invited for a meeting in the last three months.”

Ms. Syarhey accused the Prosecutor General’s Office of ignoring the constitution after Mr. Kanyuk’s predecessor, Ryhor Vasilevich, had been dismissed. “Mr. Vasilevich at least tried to defy his subordinates. Thirty appeals were filed against official decisions. But the situation has now changed drastically.”

Earlier in the day, the women made an unsuccessful attempt to meet with Alyaksandr Lukashenka or Uladzimir Makey, head of the Presidential Administration.

The women planned to deliver their fresh petition to Alyaksandr Lukashenka while he was delivering his annual address to the legislature and the nation on May 8. They were not allowed to enter the House of Government and were told to bring their petition to the Presidential Administration.

"We wanted to deliver our 35th petition urging Lukashenka to solve our problems. In particular, we wanted to remind government officials about Article 40 of the constitution of Belarus whereby everyone has the right to send individual or group appeals to state agencies and the agencies must consider the appeal and provide a reply within the period set by the law," Ms. Syarhey said.

The group left the petition at the Presidential Administration.