Siarhei Iarashevich Sentenced to Two Years of Correctional Labor

08.11.2006.

On 4 November the judge of Svetlahorsk Regional Court Natallia Belaichuk passed a sentence in the criminal case of the former judge Siarhei Iarashevich. The latter has been found guilty of insulting judges from Rahachou Uladzimir Salameichuk and Mikalai Rubisau and punished with 2 years of corrective labour. It means that during this time 20% of his wage will be transferred to a state account. The reason for the criminal case against Mr Iarashevich was his entry in a book of complaints comparing Rahachou judges with judges of Stalin era in the year 1937, who kept to the principle: give me a person, and I will find the charge matching.

This spring judges from Rahachou in turns were trying a rather complicated criminal case against Siarhei Iarashevich charged with hooliganism and inflicting light bodily injuries to a former policeman from Zhlobin.

In Rahachou court Iarashevich was fined 3.1 million rubles. He considered the trial and the verdict to be unfair. Protesting against them he wrote an entry in the complaint book. As a result of that another criminal case and another sentence followed. As far as it known, it is first-time in the country. ‘There are no verdicts of non-guilty here. It’s impossible to struggle with this system. By my words in the complaint book I demonstrated the fact that an innocent person can be convicted in our country. Not a common citizen, even a lawyer can be found guilty, and he would be deprived of rights, he wouldn’t be able to prove his innocence. It looks as if I had become an enemy of the whole system,’ the former judge Siarhei Iarashevich told in his interview to the BelaPAN.

Siarhei Iarashevich is going to appeal the verdict to a higher court. He is of the opinion that the book of complaints exists for every person to express opinion about the conduct of state officials, including judges.