“Belarusian bars are becoming Justice Ministry’s department”
“Belarusian bars are becoming Justice Ministry’s department”, - say the participants of the International Congress of the European Bars Federation held in Wroclaw in late September, where Belarusian lawyers were represented by Pavel Sapelka, deprived of his license for involvement in politically-motivated criminal cases.
At the same time, Belarusian bars have so far ignored any opportunities of cooperation with the European Bars Federation (FBE), an organization having 210 members, representing some 800,000 lawyers across Europe.
“It was a pleasant surprise to learn that the FBE is concerned with the issues of human rights movement in Belarus, and the criminal prosecution of Viasna leader Ales Bialiatski, in particular. I also have to emphasize that great attention was paid to existence of the death penalty in Belarus”, - says Pavel Sapelka.
A Resolution on the death penalty was adopted as a result of the Congress. It is published on the FBE’s official web-site.
