Expulsion of counsel Pavel Sapelka from the Minsk City Bar Association: opinions of human rights defenders

On 19 December Ales Lukashou, a student of the physical faculty of the Belarusian State University, went to the Kastrychnitskaya Square in the same column with the presidential candidate Uladzimir Niakliayeu and witnessed his beating.

He was summoned to the police twice as a participant of the demonstration. The Dean claimed he would not expel him for politics, but they found another reason - failure at the examination session. Ales passed three exams out of five, but he was failed at the last two. He tried to take these exams once again, with the commission, but in vain.

Aliaksandr Lukashou has already received an invitation to participate in Kastus Kalinouski program in Poland. The youngster wants to change his profession to another one - journalism, Nasha Niva informs.


Expulsion of counsel Pavel Sapelka from the Minsk City Bar Association: opinions of human rights defenders

Ales Bialiatski, Chair of the Human Rights Center Viasna:

'It is an unprecedented case of pressurization of counsels. I think that reprisals are used against independent lawyers on any grounds. Actually, an end is put to the independent advocacy by this. The case of Pavel Sapelka is a clear signal to all other counsels who take part in the case concerning the events of 19 December and other politically motivated cases, and in any cases in general. It is a warning to all counsels of the country.

Before this, it was said that we had no independent judiciary system. Since this day, we have no independent bar either, which grossly violates the right of all citizens to independent defense at court. Those who will try to honestly defend the accused, whose interests differ from the interests of the state authorities, will become victims of repressions.

Pavel Sapelka is actually deprived of the right to work in Belarus: it will be extremely difficult for him to find a job with such a “black mark”, though he is a high-skilled lawyer and was a member of the Presidium of the Minsk City Bar Association.

All trials concerning the events of 19 December become a complete fiction since then. They turn into a tragic show organized by the authorities to lynch their opponents. We express our categorical protest against it and urge all people who are interested in the independent defense of citizens during the investigation and the trials to do everything possible to improve the situation and get the lawyer reinstated at the place of work.


Valiantsin Stefanovich, Deputy Chair of the Human Rights Center Viasna:

In the evening of 3 March we learned about the expulsion of counsel Sapelka from the Minsk City Bar Association. Actually, it means that he has been deprived of the right to deal with advocacy. Irrespective of which formal legal grounds are used to cover it, I think that the reasons are evident. Lawyer Pavel Sapelka is well-known for his honesty and adherence to principles. He participated in cases which were inconvenient for the authorities, politically motivated cases, defended opponents of the present regime. His deprivation of the right to continue his work is a continuation of the pressurization of counsels we have observed, by which I also mean the first attempt to expel Mr. Sapelka from the bar association (when the Ministry of Justice submitted its first prescription to the bar association, but the latter didn't agree to do it) and the annulment of licenses to four counsels. All these events are interrelated.

It is very annoying that Pavel Sapelka was expelled by members of the bar association, that organs of counsels’ self government started dancing to the piping of the KGB and the Ministry of Justice. The whole society is deprived of defense by professional and honest lawyers as a result.”


Hary Pahaniaila, Chair of the legal commission of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee

“I have just learned about the expulsion of Pavel Sapelka from the bar association and still don't know the concrete reasons for it. However, the expulsion coincided with the pressurization of lawyers in general. It is connected with the participation of members of the Minsk City Bar Association in the case concerning the events of 19 December 2010 in Minsk. They try to professionally defend the people who became victims of the regime.

Pavel Sapelka has participated in many politically motivated cases. Another campaign on persecution of opponents has been launched in Belarus these days, and its scope reached lawyers. The authorities are enraged when counsels openly state that their clients are innocent and ask the court to justify them.

It is bad that Pavel Sapelka was deprived of the right to work by a decision of the bar association. Of course, the bar association unites different lawyers, and there can be good and bad people among them, but now their colleague is redundant. I think that human rights defenders must do everything possible to restore his right to work so that he would be able to continue implementing his professional duty – to defend citizens.'

Aleh Hulak, Chair of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee

“It is a very sad event which witnesses the ongoing legal boundlessness in the country. All this is evidently connected to the criminal case concerning the events of 19 December. As it can be seen from the past trials on the case, our brave secret services didn't manage to collect evidence (and it would be strange to expect it from them – remember how they had investigated the previous celebrated cases, such as the explosion in the night of 3-4 July 2008 in Minsk). These people evidently forgot how to work within the legal boundaries. Having received an order for a certain scenario of events and certain results, they need to find the guilty, to create the semblance of a legal process, but there is no evidence. Judges are easier to deal with – because they aren't chosen by clients, unlike lawyers – the necessary judge can be always appointed. Counsels, on the contrary, remained a small island of freedom, especially after the Minsk counsels elected their own administration. Now we see the struggle against this island of freedom with all existent means, unlawful means. Maybe, it is the last time the lawyers are put before such serious challenge – whether they will prove being able to oppose what somebody wants to do to them or not.

The task of human rights defenders in such cases is to talk about the problem, to disclose the situation. We can make appeals, address the international community (first of all the professional community), as the contemporary standards raise the corporative solidarity to a very high level all over the world. It is not without reason that the UN has a special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

Trying to enable all these mechanisms, we can only help, but no solve the problem – it is necessary for the lawyer community to take some effort as well.'