More Criminal Lawsuits Submitted to Courts in 2002 :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarusian district and municipal courts received last year over 51thsd criminal cases, which is 14,3% more than in the year 2001, said at the press-conference in Minsk the chairman of the Supreme Court of Belarus Sukalo. In his opinion, the rise occurred due to the general increase of the criminality level in the country. As compared with the previous year, the amount of registered crimes rose by more than 20thsd, amounting to over 132thsd.

In total in the year 2002 53626 individuals got condemned, which is 6,5% more than in 2001. Meantime, over 60% were sentenced for having committed crimes, which pose little public danger, 27% for heavy crimes and 10% for especially heaviest ones. The most popular felony of all in the country remains property theft.

35,4% of the general amount of convicts received prison sentences (in 2001 – 32,5%). 929 criminals received long prison terms for murders and attempted murders, 21 of them getting life-long sentenced. 4 individuals are on death row.

There’s a tendency of diminishing juvenile delinquency, stated the head of the top judicial body. Whereas in 2000 they sentenced 5680 under-age people, in 2001 – 5031, then in 2002 the number constituted 4779. 272 of them were justified (in 2001 – 310).