At present, there are almost 1500 political prisoners in Belarus. However, this is only the information collected by the Viasna Human Rights Center. In fact, many more people have been convicted on political grounds. The priority of the draft Restitution Concept is to formulate a mechanism for the release of all those who are being held in detention on political grounds. It is worth noting that the release of a person from prison on humanitarian grounds is not equal to the termination of their case. All legal proceedings regarding the released individuals will be reviewed by international standards. Read more about the mechanism below.
The draft Concept is available in Russian and Belarusian. Belarusians can share their feedback and proposals through the Telegram bot @AskOffice_Bot, email transitionaljustice@tsikhanouskaya.org, and the Google form.
Who will be released from penal institutions during the transitional period and how?
All persons who are illegally held in places of deprivation of liberty, including temporary and pre-trial detention centers, restricted freedom facilities, prisons, and other places of confinement, must be released immediately.
Unfortunately, the list of political prisoners compiled by the coalition of human rights organizations in Belarus is not exhaustive. Not all cases of persecution are known to the human rights community. Many prisoners themselves refuse to accept this status to avoid more severe detention conditions.
To maintain a balance between the need to ensure justice and the need to stop the suffering of people, a hybrid approach is applied. This means that people are subject to immediate release from any place of detention pending consideration of their case.
Who will be released from places of detention during the transitional period:
– Political prisoners.
– Suspects accused or convicted under articles of the Criminal Code which are often used for repression, including, among others, Article 357 “Conspiracy to seize power”, Article 368 “Insult of the President of the Republic of Belarus”.
– All those subjected to administrative arrest under all articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
Immediate release on humanitarian grounds does not release individuals from legal liability. Legal proceedings regarding these individuals will be further reviewed by law enforcement agencies, as well as judges and officials of the body conducting the administrative process, in accordance with international standards of justice.
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