Tamara Sidarenka: 7th lawyer loses license for defending participants of 19 December protests
The College
of Justice Ministry of Belarus has approved the decision to terminate the
license to lawyer T. Sidarenka.
On 30 August 2011, a
sitting of the College Board of the Ministry of Justice of
the Republic of Belarus took place to consider the
termination of the licenses of individual lawyers.
The sitting approved the
decision of the Qualification Commission for the advocacy of the Ministry of
Justice of the Republic
of Belarus of 16 August 2011
to terminate the license to lawyer T. Sidarenka. The official grounds for
termination of the license aren’t known yet.
On 17 August
2011 T. Sidarenka was to have passed an extraordinary attestation together with
lawyers from the Leninski district legal consultation of the Minsk. However, the qualification commission
of the Ministry of Justice ruled to terminate the license to the lawyer without
waiting for the results of the attestation.
Tamara Sidarenka worked as a lawyer since 1978 in the Leninski
district legal consultation (special permit (license) to engage in advocacy №
506 from 26 December 2003). She is a highly qualified lawyer
and was awarded diplomas (also by the Ministry of Justice) for highly
professional work. She also repeatedly headed trainings for young lawyers and
possesses a high authority among her colleagues.
During the investigation and the court consideration of the criminal case concerning
the events of 19 December 2010 she defended the candidate for presidency in
Belarus Uladzimir Niakliayeu. She also defended another
presidential candidate, Aliaksei Mikhalevich, after his first lawyer, A. Aheyeu,
was deprived of license.
During the lawyer repeatedly stated about violation of Niakliayeu’s rights during
the detention and imprisonment. She also demanded the identification of the
people who had assaulted him on 19 December 2010 (while he was heading to the
peaceful action of protest against the rigged election) and bringing them to
the due responsibility. During the trial she declared complete innocence of Niakliayeu
and asked the court to acquit her client.
Earlier, licenses were terminated to lawyers
U. Toustsik and T. Harayeva
who defended I. Khalip, lawyer A. Aheyeu, who defended A. Mikhalevich, lawyers
Z. Zaleuskaya and T. Aheyeva.
Lawyer P. Sapelka who defended candidate for presidency A. Sannikau was
excluded from the Minsk City Bar Association on the proposal of the Ministry of
Justice of the Republic
of Belarus.
Three of the lawyers (P Sapelka,
T. Aheyeva and A.Aheyeu) were members of the Presidium of the Minsk City Bar,
organ of lawyers’ self-government).
Some other lawyers who defended figurants of the “19 December mass riot” case
weren’t attested by extraordinary attestation commissions: D. Lipkina who
defended M. Likhavid, A. Bakhtsina (defended I. Khalip), A. Burak (defended A. Klaskouski
and A. Liabedzka). These lawyers insisted on the complete acquittal of their
clients. The qualification commission didn’t take any decisions concerning the
termination of their licenses.
Thus, the number of lawyers who were
deprived of the opportunity to carry out professional activities by the Ministry
of Justice of the Republic
of Belarus and had some
relation to the criminal case concerning the events of 19 December 2010 reached
7 people. Many other lawyers who defended figurants of the case were
pressurized by the Ministry of Justice during numerous audits and sittings of
attestation and qualification commissions.
