"They break their own rules of special proceedings." The case against Leanid Sudalenka was transferred to the court
A criminal case for "facilitating extremist activities" (Articles 361-4 of the Criminal Code) against former political prisoner and human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka was sent to the Homeĺ Regional Court for a trial in absentia in special proceedings. It is known that there are two volumes of the case materials, but the essence of the accusation is still unknown. Recently, police officers came to Leanid's apartment in Belarus to look for him at night, although he left the country last summer.
The other day, the first deputy prosecutor of the Homieĺ region A.V. Drazdou sent the criminal case against Leanid under Parts 1 and 2 of Articles 361-4 of the Criminal Code to the Homeĺ Regional Court. The human rights defender published the corresponding resolution on his Facebook page.
Leanid Sudalenka notes that as soon as the criminal case was initiated against him in the Homieĺ District Investigative Committee on November 1, 2023, he sent the investigators a paper stating that due to repression he was forced to leave the country and move to Lithuania, and left them his Lithuanian mobile number for communication.
"It is clear that no one wrote or called me, they only searched my place and seized the land. Less than six months later, they finalized the case and sent it to court. But by doing so, they break their own rules of special proceedings. According to Paragraph 2 of Part 2 of Articles 468-25 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, special proceedings can be carried out if the following conditions are met simultaneously. One of them is that a foreign state refused extradition of an accused person for criminal prosecution, or within six months from the moment the Prosecutor General's Office sent a request to a foreign state body for extradition of a person for criminal prosecution the consent of a foreign state to extradite the accused has not been obtained.
As you can see, the six months for a request for my extradition or refusal to do so end only on May 1, even if they sent a request to Lithuania for my extradition to Belarus on the first day after the case was initiated."
