Belarus (bbabo.net), - The Investigative Committee of Belarus has prepared materials for the start of special proceedings in the case of the Opposition Coordinating Council. This was announced today, on September 28, by the head of the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee Evgeny Arkhireev.
According to him, the relevant law, which came into force in July, provides for the possibility of sending criminal cases to court against persons who are outside Belarus and evade appearing in the authorities. We are talking about people who have committed crimes against peace, security, humanity and the state.
“The Investigative Committee is investigating criminal cases against organizers and active participants in extremist activities outside the republic and continuing attempts to destabilize the situation in the country,” he said.
Arkhireev said that sufficient evidence had been collected in this category of criminal cases to complete the proceedings. In particular, special proceedings have already begun against some citizens - Dmitry Navosha, Daniil Bogdanovich, Yanina Sazanovich, Olga Vysotskaya and Valeria Zanemonskaya, who are the creators and organizers of the Punishers of Belarus and Black Book of Belarus telegram channels recognized as extremist in the republic. The actions of the accused are qualified under part 3 of article 203 and part 3 of article 130 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, the sanctions of which provide for imprisonment of up to 5 and 12 years, respectively.
In addition, the investigation prepared materials for the start of special proceedings in a criminal case against the extremist formation "Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund".
“The accused appealed to foreign states and international organizations with a request to block the holding of sporting events on the territory of Belarus, as well as to prevent Belarusian athletes from participating in competitions,” a representative of the Belarusian IC noted.
It is also planned to start special proceedings against the accused in the case of the so-called Coordination Council on the fact of committing a conspiracy to seize state power and other crimes. At the same time, Arkhireev explained that special proceedings would make it possible to bring the accused to criminal liability in absentia, to apply the confiscation of property, including property registered to other persons in order to conceal it.
In turn, the head of the main department for the investigation of crimes in the field of organized crime and corruption of the Investigative Committee, Vladimir Shishko, said that the department has a number of criminal cases on the crimes of fugitive oppositionists.
“These crimes are usually of an extremist nature. Taking into account the category of crimes committed by these persons, it is planned to conduct special proceedings in the near future with the transfer of these criminal cases to the prosecutor for referral to the court, as they say, in absentia, without the accused,” he said.
According to Shishko, this is a new procedure in the Belarusian legislation, before that no decisions could be made regarding the conditional accused, including property. Currently, we are talking about cases against the head and active participants of the Viasna human rights center, whose information products are recognized as extremist, the head and administrators of the network of channels of the terrorist organization Nexta, as well as the former head of the High-Tech Park Valeria Tsepkala. At the same time, Shishko noted that this is not a complete list of criminal cases and persons involved, in respect of which "absentee courts" will be initiated.
Recall that in Belarus, after the presidential elections in 2020, mass protests took place for several months. The Belarusian authorities promised to find and punish all those involved in them. A number of oppositionists managed to escape from the country and today continue their activities in the territory of the EU countries and the USA.
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