The recent law amendments that allow to come not only after people involved in mercenarism, but also after participants in armed conflicts abroad (art. 361-3 of the Criminal Code) will increase the level of safety in Belarus, the country’s Interior Minister Ihar Shunevich told journalists on Thursday.
According to the minister, he studied the biographies of the Belarusians fighting in Ukraine and found that many of them are emotionally unstable, They may lead us into trouble in the future, Shune vich warns.
The article empowers law enforsers to prosecute Belarusians for participation in armed conflicts in other countries even if there are not any signs of mercenarism. It also provides for penalties for recruiting and training citizens and financing such activities. Earlier , a person could be punished for their involvement if any proof of being paid was available.
As reported earlier, Belarusian-born Taras Avatarau, a volunteer fighter of Ukraine’s Right Sector, was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment in early May.
Stanislau (Stas) Hancharou, a 20-year-old resident of the Belarusian city of Vitsebsk, was detained in Minsk in April. The Belarusian citizen who goes by the nickname ‘Terror Machine’ was a fighter of the Ukrainian battalion ‘Azov’.
The Belarusian law enforcement agencies opened 135 criminal cases against citizens of Belarus who fought or are fighting in Donbas. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka repeatedly said that Belarus had no place for ‘militants’ who are participating in the conflict in Ukraine.
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