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Afterword... Afterword AFTERWORD... AFTERWORD... For the public interest Legal Transformation Center is a non-profit organization working for the aim of legal culture improvement, implementation of enlightenment, analyti- Square 2010 cal and research activities in the sphere of law. We are the group of professionals who work together using legal research and educational methods for the realization and effective protection of human through the Eyes rights and freedoms. Main goal of our work is to promote development of ideas of legal protection of Belarusian Human of public interests. Rights Defenders Objectives • To promote the role of law; • To promote development of legal culture; • To promote implementation of international law; • Promotion of generally accepted principles of international law; • To promote development of legal community and legal technologies. Expert directions: • Freedom of Associations; • Freedom of Information. Right to Information; • Access to Justice. Right to Fair Trial. Right to Legal Aid. Main activities: • Оrganization and conductoin of seminars, conferences, round tables and other types of enlightenment activities; through the Eyes of Belarusian Human Rights Defenders • Research on the question of market conditions and public opinion surveys; • Conduction of educational, research and analytical work in the sphere of law, distribution of gained results; • Scientific research and innovations in the sphere of public and humanitar- ian sciences; • Publishing activities. Square 2010 www.lawtrend.org Legal Transformation Center AFTERWORD… Square 2010 through the Eyes of Belarusian Human Rights Defenders Minsk “MonLitera” 2012 The Legal Transformation Center is grateful for active and sincere help to everyone who contributed to this work: for assistance in collecting information and processing transcripts and for other helpful support. Afterword… Square 2010 through the Eyes of Belarusian Human Rights Defenders / compiled by Marina Adamovich, Tatsiana Ageyeva, Daria Katkovskaya, Alexey Kozliuk, Maria Lugina, Tamara Sidorenko, Elena Tonkacheva and Oleg Fedotov — Minsk, 2012. 164 pages. Based on the monitoring of criminal processes initiated in connection with the peaceful protest on 19 December 2010 in Minsk, this study gives an account of the preconditions for, and the course of, the proceedings and makes a legal assessment of their compliance with constitutional guarantees and international fair trial standards. The publication is addressed to government officials, scholars, practicing lawyers, law students, human rights defenders and a broader audience of those who have a keen interest in the social and political life in Belarus. © Legal Transformation Center, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS In memory of Marek Nowicki 5 I. INTRODUCTION 7 1.1. Structure of This Publication 8 1.2. Criteria for Including Criminal Trials into the Monitoring 9 1.3. Monitoring Data Collection and Analysis Methodology 10 II. CONTEXT OF THE CRIMINAL TRIALS 13 2.1. Prosecution of Protesters in Belarus before 2010 14 2.2. Response from International Organizations to Human Rights Violations in Belarus 16 2.3. Political and Legal Background before the December Events (2010) 28 2.4. Events that Served as a Pretext for Criminal Prosecution 29 2.5. Formation of the Public Opinion by State-run Media at the Pre-trial and Trial Phases 32 2.6. Public Control over the Human Rights Observance in the Context of the Criminal Trials 40 III. ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION 45 3.1. Objectives, Tasks and Subject Matter of the Study 46 3.2. Observance of General Fair Trial Standards 50 3.2.1. Right to a Trial by an Independent, Impartial and Competent Court Established by Law 50 3.2.2. Independence of Lawyers 58 3.2.3. Role of the Prosecutor 68 3.2.4. Role of the Aggrieved Person (Victim) 72 3.3. Observance of Standards for Pre-trial Proceedings 74 3.3.1. Right to Liberty and Prohibition of Arbitrary Detention 74 3.3.2. Right to be Informed of the Reasons for Detention and of Any Charges 78 3.3.3. Right to be Informed of One’s Rights 79 3.3.4. Right to Legal Assistance before Trial 80 3.3.5. Right to Have Adequate Time and Facilities to Prepare for the Defence 82 3.3.6. Right Not to be Held Incommunicado (without Communication with the Outer World) 83 3.3.7. Right to be Brought before an Officer Authorized to Exercise Judicial Power 85 3 3.3.8. Right to Challenge the Lawfulness of Detention 86 3.3.9. Right to be Tried within Reasonable Time 88 3.3.10. Right to Humane Treatment and Freedom from Torture under Detention in Custody 89 3.4. Observance of Standards for Judicial Proceedings 92 3.4.1. Right to a Fair Trial 92 3.4.2. Right to a Public Hearing 94 3.4.3. Presumption of Innocence 97 3.4.4. Right to Defence 100 3.4.5. Right to Attend the Trial 102 3.4.6. Right to the Equality of Arms (the Principle of Equality of Arms) 103 3.4.7. Attendance and Examination of Witnesses 106 3.4.8. Right not to be Compelled to Self-incrimination or to Testify against Oneself 108 3.4.9. Exclusion of Unlawfully Obtained Evidence including Torture or Maltreatment 109 3.4.10. Prohibition of Double Jeopardy (Ne bis in idem) 113 3.4.11. Right to a Public and Reasoned Court Decision 115 3.4.12. Right to Appeal 116 IV. FINAL CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 119 4.1. Conclusions 120 4.2. Recommendations 139 ANNEXES 143 ANNEX 1. Summarized Recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR Trial Monitoring Mission 144 ANNEX 2. Concluding Observations of the UN Committee against Torture regarding the 4th Periodic Report by Belarus [Extracts] 149 ANNEX 3. Table of the Accused and Convicted 154 4 In memory of Marek Nowicki On the night between 19 and 20 December 2010 we, the team of the Legal Transformation Center, were far from undertaking to pub- lish this book. We were just doing our job — documenting what was happening. At that time we were simply unable to get an idea of how dramatic the then current events were and which implica- tions they would bring about. This publication united efforts of many people. This publication is about responsibility — personal, collective, civ- il, criminal, political, professional. This publication is an interim bottom line. Two years have passed. Publishing this book, we are looking back at the arrests, searches, seizures and interrogations that filled up the first months after 19 December 2010 as something beyond real- ity. The row of administrative and criminal trials seemed to have no end. This period has raised our awareness of what international solidar- ity in human rights defence is: we did our part of the job together. Yet, a former presidential candidate, Nikolay Statkevich, politi- cians Dmitriy Dashkevich and Pavel Severinets, a human rights defender Ales Bialyatsky, and others have been deprived of their liberty on political motives. Another former presidential candidate, Andrey Sannikov, and many civil society activists have had to leave Belarus. Elena Tonkacheva, Graduate of the First International Course on Human Rights by the Helsinki Committee in Poland 5 I. INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 1.1. Structure of This Publication This is a comprehensive study that should not be viewed as a purely analytical report covering the results of monitoring the criminal trials related to the 19 December 2010 events. The cases are specific in that such a large-scale criminal prosecution of the protest participants was not purely caused by their unlawful actions. The reason should be sought in the social and political structure of today’s Belarus. It would not be superfluous to men- tion that the practice of violating human rights and suppressing civil activity together with post-election spikes of violence are a regular phenomenon in our country. Therefore, it is impossible to limit the study to only providing information about the 19 December evening and quoting facts from subsequent criminal cases as this would be an obvious simplifica- tion. The structure of this publication is arranged in the way that the reader gets the most complete data related to the criminal cases under study. This approach, as we see it, gives an opportunity to assess the prerequisites and actual reasons behind the criminal cases in question. The latter will no doubt go down in history as politically motivated. Moreover, besides providing facts, we feel it is our duty to make an unprejudiced legal assessment of both the criminal trials and their outcomes. The introduction will provide the reader with exhaustive information about the subject matter and objectives of the study and about the methodology used by the Legal Trans- formation Center. It also includes the criteria used to select the cases and a brief descrip- tion of the work which was done in the conditions of limited resources and lack of public supervision over the judiciary to collect data for the analysis and assessment of the criminal trials. The second part describes the facts and socio-political events that, in their aggregate, form the context of the criminal trials. The retrospective outlook of the criminal prosecution of peaceful protesters in Belarus allows considering the ‘Decembrists Case’ as far from being the first one, though unprecedented in terms of its scale. In turn, some will probably find the reference to the forms of response from the international community to previous facts of human rights violations as a useful reminder to understand the position of various international organizations concerning the current situation. The format in which the cases under study were reported by the state-run mass media is as an important factor distin- guishing these cases as going beyond the scope of the criminal process. The third part is an assessment of the criminal trials for their compliance with constitu- tional and legislative guarantees as well as fair trial requirements of the international law.
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