Republican Coordination Meeting on Combating Crime and Corruption held

The 24^th Coordination Meeting on Combating Crime and Corruption was held in the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War under the chairmanship of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Shved.

The following topics were on the agenda: the effectiveness of fulfilment of instructions given by the Head of State during the meeting devoted to the issues of quality of work of law enforcement agencies in detecting and investigating crimes; ensuring the principle of inevitability of responsibility for extremist crimes; problematic issues of combating recidivism and taking measures aimed at their solution.

The meeting was attended by Deputy State Secretary of the Security Council Alexander Rakhmanov, Chairman of the Investigative Committee Dmitry Gora, Chairman of the State Forensic Examination Committee Alexei Volkov, Head of the OAC under the President of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Pavlyuchenko, Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Kubrakov, Minister for Emergency Situations Vadim Sinyavsky, Chairman of the State Customs Committee Vladimir Orlovsky, Minister of Justice Sergei Khomenko, Minister of Taxes and Duties Sergei Nalivaiko, Deputy Chairman of the State Control Committee - Director of the Financial Investigation Department Igor Marshalov, heads of other state bodies, prosecutors and law enforcement officers.

“Today, at the meeting, we must assess the ongoing work and determine additional measures to ensure the security of our citizens, society and the state from criminal encroachments,” the Prosecutor General pointed out.

In their speeches, the meeting participants noted:

improvement of interaction of law enforcement agencies at the stage of initiating a criminal case;

reduction of the number of complaints received by prosecution service concerning violations in operational-search activities and in the course of criminal process;

decrease in the number of cases when public prosecutors bring new charges and file motions to suspend proceedings in order to collect additional evidence.

For reference. In 2021, amendments were made to the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Belarus aimed at improving the activities of criminal prosecution bodies.

In order to ensure the correct and uniform application of legislation in criminal cases on corruption offenses, at the suggestion of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus on September 30, 2021 adopted new versions of the resolution “On judicial practice in cases of crimes against the interests of service” (Articles 424-428 of the Criminal Code)” and “On judicial practice in cases of bribery”.

The Prosecutor General drew attention to the fact that despite the achievement of a certain positive result, “we should not be complacent, we should carry out persistent and systematic work to fulfill the instructions of the Head of State.”

During discussion of problems of overcoming recidivism, it was stated that the number of crimes registered in the country for 9 months of 2021, committed by persons with outstanding and unexpunged convictions, compared to the same period of 2020, has insignificantly decreased – from 15,728 to 14,933. At the same time, the share remained at the same level – 41.6%.

“Recidivism is one of the most dangerous social phenomena. Its proper prevention requires comprehensive measures,” Andrei Shved said.

When conducting inspections, prosecutors continue to identify shortcomings in the activities of authorities in charge of preventive work in the fight against recidivism:

the algorithm of interaction between interested state bodies for the employment of persons released from places of deprivation of liberty has not been debugged;

internal affairs bodies committed violations in the conduct of preventive registering and preventive work, including control over the arrival of such citizens to the declared place of residence.

According to the Prosecutor General, “the interaction between the authorities in charge of preventive work should be clearly regulated at each stage: the conviction of a person, serving a sentence, release, assistance in resocialization and supervision over the person.”

The meeting participants emphasized the importance of preventing new crimes by those convicted of extremist activities. When working with them, more attention should be paid to measures to prevent the spread of destructive ideas and values. At the same time, the priority is to prevent the involvement of young citizens in illegal behavior.

As a result of the meeting, a set of specific organizational and practical measures was developed for each body concerned.

As part of the event, the Prosecutor General talked to representatives of the media. Along with questions on the agenda, he touched upon the topic of maintaining law and order.

“We note objectively that public safety in the streets is ensured, the law enforcement bloc is in full control of the situation in the country. Any manifestations of extremism and terrorism will be suppressed, the perpetrators will be punished,” summed up Andrei Shved.

Photo: Prosecutor General’s Office, BelTA

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