European Court phohibits extradition of Belarusians home

"No one should be a subject of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", - says 3rd Article of the European Convention on Human Rights. It was signed by 47 European countries - all the European nations apart from Belarus.

"The Court unanimously declares that in case of fulfillment of the decision to extradict the claimants to Belarus... it would break Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights", - were the words of victory, of the verdict of the European Court on Human Rights for the Belarusian family the Pchelnikau's, who sued France.

In 2004 Jury Pchelnikau, together with his wife and children left for the European Union for their own safety. Some time later they moved to France, which wanted to send them back to Belarus as illegal immigrants.

Extract from the court's resolution: "On October 1st he was arrested by the police, driven to the forest out of city and beaten till he lost consciousness. Before the Parliamentary elections, on the night of November 16-17 he was detained and put under home arrest... He claims he was beaten by the policemen and that he lost consciousness after he had been hit in the head", - stated in the Court's decision with regard to pressure on the activist of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front.

Numerous arrests and pressure from force authorities have been confirmed in Court by documentation of human rights organizations and medical documents.

Victory of Belarusians in the Strasbourg Court on September 2 is a very rare event. The point is, Belarus is the only European country which is not the member of the European Council and does not even have the special guest status. Thus, Belarusians cannot file complaints on Belarusian court and other authorities. Belarusians can only sue other European countries.

The European Court took the decision with regard to the complaint filed back in 2006 only now - the judges have no time to quickly consider thousands of complaints from citizens of 47 European countries. The European Court considered proof of pressure rendered due to political reasons, provided by Jury, true.

Having analyzed the circumstances of the case, the regulations of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, the Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 1671 (2009), report of the special speaker on Human Rights of the UNO (A/HRC/4/16, January 15, 2007)  and report of international human rights organizations (Freedom House, Amnesty International) about the situation with human rights in Belarus, seven judges from different European countries came to the conclusion that there indeed was a risk of inhuman treament of Jury and his family in case they returned to their homeland. Thus, France has no right to deport the illegal immigrants, as this violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

Jury Belenki: "I don't remember anything special. All of us were beaten. I mean, no member of the party avoided repressions, you see what I mean?"

The Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Christian Party of the BPFJury Belenki says he doesn't remember Jury Pchelnikau, as repressions and beating of the activists of the party happened too often.

The European Court made a series of verdicts on complaints of Belarusians, who referred to possible inhuman treatment in case of return to Belarus, before (Article 3 of the Convention).

The last 2 cases of the kind were won in the European Court of Human Rights by Ihar Koktysh last year and Dmytro Puzan this year, both against the Ukraine.

Comment: France can file a claim for reconsideration of the case by the Grand Chamber of the Court, which consists of 17 judges, within 3 months. However, this is unlikely: the Grand Chamber only considers claims of extereme importance.