Authorities prepare amendments to law seeking to revoke citizenship and seize property of Belarusians
Convicted of extremism, Belarusians may be deprived of citizenship, even if it was given by birthright. The authorities are also going to seize the property of such people, head of GUBOPIC Andrei Parshyn said in an interview with mlyn.by.
GUBOPIC is currently working in the field of anti-revolutionary activity, says mlyn.by. At the moment, together with other agencies, they are working on legislative initiatives to deprive Belarusian people who have been found guilty of committing extremist crimes of their citizenship, regardless of the way the citizenship was obtained.
“We also consider it necessary to establish unconditional administrative responsibility for subscribing to Internet resources whose materials are recognized as extremist, and to apply general confiscation of their property as an additional punishment to those who have committed extremist crimes,” says Andrey Parshyn.
According to Parshyn, there are two types of “extremists” detained by GUBOPIK. The first type is those “who are well off in life — they have everything. People say about them: they are going crazy, they don’t know where to put money and themselves.
The second type is total thugs and people who think that they can improve their financial situation via a coup and revolt, or get on the social elevator and become so-called heroes of the revolution,” says Parshyn. “Everything starts with comments, and then some IT guy picks up a gun and kills a law enforcement officer, cynically filming the whole thing.”
Thus, according to Parshyn, the police will seek out and prosecute anyone who insults officers and their families on the Internet. The representative of GUBOPIC recalled that more than 300 commenters on the death of pilots in Baranavichy and the murder of a KGB officer in the shooting were detected. Parshyn said the following about those who leave comments on the Internet: “Unemployed, previously convicted, a supporter of LGBT values, they are essentially people with inflated self-esteem who has failed to fulfill himself. These rejects are called “political prisoners” by radical telegram channels and opposition leaders.”
Parshyn said that this year GUBOPIK has allegedly prevented 2 acts of terrorism. In both cases, certain citizens M. and Z., received instructions from foreign handlers. As a result, the detonation of improvised explosive devices in Barysau and in the yard of a house in Minsk was prevented, as well as the arson of a house in the Minsk region.
In 2021, GUBOPIK found 120 owners and administrators of “destructive” Internet resources. Access to 104 “such Internet resources” was restricted. Materials from 125 telegram channels and chat rooms were declared extremist, and 13 groups of citizens were declared extremist by the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
According to Parshyn, extremist telegram channels “have suffered a loss of more than 250,000 subscribers, and this decline continues.”
The representative of GUBOPIK also recalled the anarchist movement and said that 33 anarchists had been prosecuted.
“It’s safe to say that the anarchist movement in the Republic of Belarus is now completely liquidated,” said the representative of GUBOPIC.
Andrei Parshyn said that there is no outflow of personnel from GUBOPIK and threatened those employees who had gone to ByPol with responsibility “to the fullest extent of the law.”
