Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Shved took part in the 22nd meeting of the Prosecutors General of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Bishkek

With the participation of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Shved, the 22nd meeting of the prosecutors general of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (hereinafter referred to as the SCO) was held in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic, during which the role of the prosecutor's office in the era of digitalization and responses to modern challenges will be considered.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the supervisory agencies of Belarus,

India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the SCO Secretariat, the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure, as well as the delegation of Azerbaijan, which has the status of an SCO dialogue partner state.

The main goals of the SCO include:

• strengthening mutual trust and good neighborliness among participating states; 

• promoting their effective cooperation in political, trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural fields, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection and others; 

• jointly ensuring and maintaining peace, security and stability in the region; 

• advancing towards the creation of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

The event opened with a video message to the participants of the meeting by the President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov.

Welcoming the participants of the event, Andrei Shved noted that for the General Prosecutor's Office of Belarus the meeting was special, since the Belarusian side was participating in it for the first time as full members of the organization.

"Today, in the context of global digitalization, cybersecurity of critical infrastructure and big data has become extremely important for ensuring the sustainability of all spheres of life," the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus said in his report.

The head of the supervisory agency stated that in Belarus, against the backdrop of a decrease in the total number of crimes by more than half over the past 15 years, there has recently been a growing trend in the number of cybercrimes. He provided information that in 2023 their number increased by almost a quarter, amounting to more than 18 thousand. He clarified that every fifth crime in the republic was committed using information and communication technologies. Among such crimes, the predominant ones were theft through the use of computer equipment, fraud and extortion.

"One of the ways to commit them is to deceive citizens under the pretext of selling goods on various Internet resources and making transactions with cryptocurrency. There are also widespread cases of "telephone" fraud, when criminals, under the guise of law enforcement officers or bank specialists, force victims to transfer money to controlled accounts. A significant part of such crimes are committed by persons located outside our country, and the stolen funds are transferred abroad," emphasized Andrei Shved.

At the same time, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus assured that the prosecutor's office is actively using all the powers granted to restore order: "Criminal cases are being initiated, information products are recognized as extremist materials in court, access to websites and online -publications is being limited, and organizations of a destructive nature are being liquidated at the request of prosecutors."

Andrei Shved dwelled in more detail on the initiatives of the Prosecutor General's Office regarding the adjustment of legislation on countering extremism, including the information environment. In particular, he informed about the ban for organizers and participants of extremist organizations to establish new organizations and media for five years; on the right of the Prosecutor General, regional prosecutors, and the city of Minsk to restrict access to an Internet resource, online publication through which calls for extremist activity and other destructive information are disseminated.

To develop his thoughts, the head of the supervisory agency spoke about a comprehensive action plan developed at the initiative of the Prosecutor General's Office and approved by the Government to combat cybercrimes, prevent their commission, and increase the digital literacy of the population for the years of 2024-2025.

Among other things, it provides for: the development and improvement of cybersecurity systems; monitoring of cyberspace for the purpose of timely identification, prevention of cyber threats and their neutralization; ensuring the protection of public and private information resources from cyber attacks; improving the personnel training system, increasing the level of computer literacy and digital security of citizens, developing international cooperation in this area.

Andrei Shved also informed in detail about the department's proposals in the legislative sphere aimed at combating cybercrime and the legalization of criminal and corruption proceeds: "On our initiative, information systems for monitoring suspicious financial transactions are being introduced, and it is also possible for employees of bank branches to independently make decisions on refusing to issue loan when the citizen is clearly under the influence of third parties. In addition, the National Bank of Belarus was pointed out the need to improve the process of issuing online loans."

The head of the supervisory agency emphasized the active participation of prosecutors in the development of the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus "On measures to combat unauthorized payment transactions."

Reference. According to the Decree, an automated system has been created that makes it possible to identify and suppress unauthorized transfers of funds (transfers carried out without the consent of the user of the payment service).

In particular, these are transactions that do not correspond to the client's usual financial transactions (including the location of the transfer, its amount, frequency, nature of the client's activities), or transfers where the recipient of the funds was previously a participant in the incident and his data is available in the system.

If signs of an unauthorized transfer are detected, financial organizations are required to suspend the payment.

"The Prosecutor General's Office, the State Security Committee, the Investigative Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been given the right to suspend for up to 10 days debit transactions on the accounts and electronic wallets of a payment service user for whom there is information about participation in theft. The operation of the system made it possible to quickly suspend movement on accounts through which stolen funds were moved, as well as seize them. Over the three months of operation of the incident processing system, banks suspended transactions worth over 10 million rubles (USD 3.5 million), and law enforcement agencies suspended transactions worth another 2.7 million rubles (USD 0.8 million),” he shared with colleagues positive results of work in the area under consideration Andrei Shved.

To summarize, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus focused on the fact that cybercrime has long gone beyond national borders and represents a global problem.

"Only through joint, coordinated actions will we be able to control criminogenic processes and minimize the harm they cause. The Republic of Belarus supports international efforts to combat these crimes and is always ready for mutually beneficial cooperation," he concluded.

The head of the supervisory agency also expressed gratitude to the organizers of the summit - the Prosecutor General's Office of the Kyrgyz Republic - "for the excellent organization of the meeting and the warm welcome in Bishkek."

As part of the meeting, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Shved held a bilateral meeting with the Prosecutor General of the Kyrgyz Republic Maksat Asanaliev.

Colleagues "synchronized their watches" in the main areas of work in the criminal legal field, noted close relations in interaction both within the framework of participation in the activities of industry cooperation bodies in the CIS, and concluded international treaties.

In addition, on the sidelines of the forum, a meeting was held between the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Shved and the Prosecutor General of the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office of the People's Republic of China Ying Yong.

Andrei Shved expressed confidence that a frank and constructive dialogue will help to find new ways of effective interaction on a wide range of issues in the fight against crime. It will allow us to jointly outline ways and means to further improve cooperation in key areas of prosecutorial activity.

"Our meeting on Kyrgyz soil testifies to the strong and stable ties between the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Belarus and the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office of the People's Republic of China. I believe that we have maintained a high level of prosecutorial cooperation, trust in each other and simple, warm human relations," he noted.

Andrei Shved suggested that Ying Yun move to a higher level of interaction and develop a plan for joint activities for the coming years, to which his Chinese colleagues agreed.

The purpose of such meetings is to strengthen professional ties and strengthen international cooperation for the benefit of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of citizens.

In conclusion, the participants of the 22nd meeting signed a protocol on strengthening cooperation in the field of introducing modern technologies in prosecutorial activities.

The 23rd regular meeting of the prosecutors general of the SCO member states will be held in 2025 in Pakistan.

As part of the event, Andrei Shved spoke with representatives of mass media.

Photo: General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Belarus, General Prosecutor's Office of the Kyrgyz Republic

Media Relations Department
of the General Prosecutor's Office