The pardon decree was signed on the eve of the so called Day of National Unity (September 17).
(UPD 13.40) By the moment, only three names of the political prisoners who are to be released under the decree are known: Viktar Kalinouski from Brest, Valery Laza from Svetlahorsk, Maksim Shaulinski from Orsha, human rights defenders report.
According to Volha Chuprys, the deputy head of Lukashenka’s administration, most of the pardoned ‘committed crimes via the Internet’ and ‘sincerely repented’. Notably, they were sentenced for ‘hooliganism’ or ‘participating in riots’. 9 of the 13 pardoned people have minor children.
In August, pro-regime activist Yury Vaskrasenski handed over a list of 100 ‘candidates for being pardoned’ to Lukashenka’s administration.
In the summer of 2020, Yury Vaskrasenski was a member of the initiative group for collecting signatures for the wannabe presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka. Amid post-election protests, he was arrested; however, in October, Vaskrasenski was released from custody the next day after Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s visit to the KGB pre-trial detention centre. Soon after the release, Vaskrasenski started writing letters to political prisoners, urging them to ask Lukashenka for clemency.
The Belarusian official told TV station Belarus 1 that about a quarter of the defendants included in Vaskrasenski’s list had not yet received verdicts or sentences imposed on them had not yet entered into force, so the commission did not consider their cases. Another 17 people are allegedly violators of confinement rules, which indicates that they ‘fail to mend their ways’, she said.
Chuprys also noted that more than a dozen people from the above mentioned list committed crimes related to corruption, drug or weapons trafficking; six people had had criminal record before.
“In addition, there were those who refused to file a pardon petition,” she added.
belsat.eu
