5 people per day were arrested for graft in 2009
Belarus' Prosecutor General Ryhor Vasilevich has spoken out in favor of the abolition of criminal prosecution for acting on behalf of an unregistered organization, against operative experiments and has confirmed that Lithuania's request to extradite General Uskhopchyk was rejected. Prosecutor General Ryhor Vasilevich told reporters in Minsk on Wedensday about what his office did last year to strengthen the rule of law in the country. Talking about the number of solved crimes, he highlighted the issue of the so called operative experiments when police officers would provoke people into committing a crime. Responding to a question of ERB's correspondent, Vasilevich promised to think what to do about it. He said:
“The right to carry out operative experiments is stipulated in the Law on Operative and Investigative Activities”. But this law also bans provocations into committing criminal actions. We are going to return to this issue and have it analyzed in order to ensure getting citizens' rights and the interests of the state observed. Corruption harms the whole society, the state and everyone”.
Vasilevich said 1746 people or almost 5 people per day were arrested for bribes last year!
"3366 cases associated with corruption were filed in 2009. The crimes -- mostly bribery, embezzlement, abuse of office -- were committed by 1746 people. Losses amounted to Br53 billion..
At the same time, Prosecutor General reckons that not all the corruption-related crimes should envisage imprisonment. For example, a doctor who issued a "false" sickness statement for a bottle of cogniac should not face 6 years in prison term, "although it is definitely bad".
Vasilevich named the Minister of Industry, Minister of Agriculture, Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Health as the most corrupt government agencies.
He also said that 26 murders remained unresolved since 2009. If we add 29 unresolved murders from 2008, it looks like a bad performance. Vasilevich said law-enforcement agencies had no serious breakthrough in tackling the drug trafficing, either.
Unexpectedly, Prosecutor General spoke in favour of abolishing the criminal prosecution for acting on behalf of unregistered organization and replacing it with the administrative prosecution.
He said this issue could be resolved by lawmakers only. They are supposed to pass amendments to a relevant law. But Vasilevich said he could not promise that the Office of the Prosecutor General would endorse a proposal to replace criminal prosecution with the administrative responsibility for this offence.
In the final minutes of the news conference, Vasilevich also confirmed that Lithuania's request to extradiate General Uskhopchyk was rejected. According to Vasilevich, Belarus does not extradite uts citizens to other countries and is not going to break this practice in the case of General Uskhopchyk.
Photo by Euroradio
“The right to carry out operative experiments is stipulated in the Law on Operative and Investigative Activities”. But this law also bans provocations into committing criminal actions. We are going to return to this issue and have it analyzed in order to ensure getting citizens' rights and the interests of the state observed. Corruption harms the whole society, the state and everyone”.
Vasilevich said 1746 people or almost 5 people per day were arrested for bribes last year!
"3366 cases associated with corruption were filed in 2009. The crimes -- mostly bribery, embezzlement, abuse of office -- were committed by 1746 people. Losses amounted to Br53 billion..
At the same time, Prosecutor General reckons that not all the corruption-related crimes should envisage imprisonment. For example, a doctor who issued a "false" sickness statement for a bottle of cogniac should not face 6 years in prison term, "although it is definitely bad".
Vasilevich named the Minister of Industry, Minister of Agriculture, Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Health as the most corrupt government agencies.
He also said that 26 murders remained unresolved since 2009. If we add 29 unresolved murders from 2008, it looks like a bad performance. Vasilevich said law-enforcement agencies had no serious breakthrough in tackling the drug trafficing, either.
Unexpectedly, Prosecutor General spoke in favour of abolishing the criminal prosecution for acting on behalf of unregistered organization and replacing it with the administrative prosecution.
He said this issue could be resolved by lawmakers only. They are supposed to pass amendments to a relevant law. But Vasilevich said he could not promise that the Office of the Prosecutor General would endorse a proposal to replace criminal prosecution with the administrative responsibility for this offence.
In the final minutes of the news conference, Vasilevich also confirmed that Lithuania's request to extradiate General Uskhopchyk was rejected. According to Vasilevich, Belarus does not extradite uts citizens to other countries and is not going to break this practice in the case of General Uskhopchyk.
Photo by Euroradio
