MPs to review bill banning WRW flag


Марш герояў
March of Heroes in Minsk. September 13, 2020.
Photo: Alyaksandr Vasyukovich / Vot-tak.tv

The Prosecutor General’s Office has prepared and sent to the Parliament a draft law “On Amendments to the Laws on Countering Extremism”.

One of the lawyers wishing to participate in the discussion of the initiative received a reply from the department. A photo of the response was published by the telegram channel “JurFuck.”

“The Prosecutor General’s Office has considered your application on the issue of citizen participation in improving the legislation on countering extremism. As we informed you earlier, the collective opinion stated in the preliminary appeal about the inadmissibility of recognizing the white-red-white flag as an extremist symbolism was taken into account by the Prosecutor General’s Office and taken into account within the framework of measures to improve the legislation on countering extremism,” the letter says.

At the same time, the Prosecutor General’s Office has already completed work on the draft law “On amendments of laws on countering extremism”. It was sent to parliament for approval and further revision.

On January 29, it was reported that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus was going to recognize the white-red-white flag as extremist. A collective petition signed by “more than a hundred citizens” was enough for such a decision. Its authors ask to equate the white-red-white flag, “which during the war became a symbol of atrocities on the Belarusian soil,” to extremist symbols.

Such an initiative was rejeected by the Belarusians: on the same day, a petition against the recognition of the White-red-white flag as extremist was created and signed by more than 100 thousand people in a few days.

Earlier, Alyaksandr Lukashenka called the white-red-white flag fascist:

“We will remove these fascist symbols from our society. We will do it beautifully, but first of all by explaining it to people and hammering it into their heads that it is forbidden,” he promised in November 2020.

Professional Belarusian historians have spoken loudly: they issued a joint statement in defense of the flag.

Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vadzim Lakiza, deputy of the House of Representatives Valery Varanetski, prominent Belarusian skier Syarhei Dalidovich and others were among those who stood up for the national flag.

Hanna Kanapatskaya also spoke during the recent National Assembly in support of the WRW flag, but it didn’t get on the air of the state media.

belsat.eu

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