Disgraced Belarusian counsels support their Ukrainian colleagues
A group of the Belarusian counsels
which were persecuted by the Belarusian authorities addressed their
Ukrainian colleagues with the words of support. They filed an
appropriate letter to the Supreme Qualification and Disciplinary
Commission of the Ukrainian Bar Association.
"We, former
Belarusian counsels, including those who were deprived of the right
to profession for bona fide implementation of professional duties,
learned from a statement of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human
Rights about the cases of suspension and cessation of the law
practice of a number of Ukrainian lawyers and the consideration of a
large number of disciplinary cases. Among the figurants of these
cases there are such counsels as Vladymyr Vysotskyj, Roman
Martynovskyj, Mikolay Siryj, Volha Moshkarynets, Nadiya Baranska,
Larysa Herasko and others (overall, more than 20 persons). There is
also information about the threat of criminal prosecution of the
Ukrainian counsels which don't recognize the present composition of
the Bar self-government structures.
… The reason for the punishment of
the counsels was, in particular, their assessment of some aspects of
the new Criminal-Process Code of the Ukraine and voicing their
personal position concerning the legality of the decisions of one of
the assemblies of counsels. To our mind, such cases, as well as the
recent information about the split in the Ukrainian Bar, witness the
upcoming deep crisis of the institute of the Bar in the
Ukraine."
Belarusian counsels warn their Ukrainian
colleagues that "similar events took place in Belarus in 2011,
which lead to the actual liquidation of the independence of the Bar
in our country. The endless examinations of counsels by the Ministry
of Justice, involvement of the Bar self-government in the persecution
of counsels, constant pretensions in connection with the critical
speeches of counsels in the press and mass re-attestations of
counsels eventually resulted in the deprivation of some of them of
licenses and forced retirement of others.
As a result of the
indifference of the majority of counsels and an active interference
of the state with the activity of the independent institution the
present edition of the new law of the Republic of Belarus "About
the Bar and the legal practice" which was initially planned as a
progressive document, completely deprived the Bar of independent and
turned it into a structural subdivision of the Ministry of Justice.
Remembering that the Ukrainian counsels and human rights
defenders were the first to raise their voices in support of the
protection of the Belarusian Bar in January 2011, we join the voices
of defenders of the Bar independence and express our support to the
Ukrainian colleagues who are subjected to pressurization."
The
address to the Ukrainian lawyers was signed by:
Uladzimir
Bukshtynau
Aleh Aheyeu
Ihar Rynkevich
Liudmila
Ulyashyna
Raman Kisliak
Andrei Varvashevich
Pavel
Sapelka
Tamara Sidarenka
Tatsiana Aheyeva
Hary Pahaniaila
