The Head of State received the report of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Shved

The Head of State received the report of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Shved.

First of all, the Prosecutor General informed the President about the general criminogenic situation that has developed in 2021.

For reference. The number of registered crimes in the country decreased by 8 % – from 95,478 to 87,696.

The number of the most dangerous violent crimes against a person decreased: murders (including attempts) – by 4.8 %, intentional infliction of grave bodily injury – by 5 %, rape and sexual assault – by 4 %.

The number of people who died from crimes decreased by 7 %, from 886 to 824.

The negative phenomena of the second half of 2020 did not have an adverse impact on the work of law enforcement and government agencies and society as a whole.

Significant efforts of law enforcement officers were directed at countering extremist manifestations, as well as stabilizing the social and political situation in the country.

The issues of disclosure and investigation of extremist crimes were considered twice at the meetings of the Republican Coordination Meeting on Combating Crime and Corruption under the leadership of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus.

The main task is to ensure the inevitability of liability of organizers, coordinators and active participants in mass riots and protest actions, deprive them of funding.

As a result of the measures taken, the number of committed criminal acts related to extremist activities and participation in illegal protest actions began to decrease monthly.

In 2021, protests were occasional and rare, mostly in the form of placement of protest symbols in public places. Calls for strikes were not supported.

Prosecutors:

initiated 523 criminal cases on crimes related to illegal protest actions;

directed to courts 300 applications to recognize certain information products as extremist materials, of which to date 259 applications have been considered and granted;

restricted access to 15 websites and online media outlets;

ensured liquidation of 60 organizations of a destructive orientation by filing lawsuits and issuing prosecutor’s notions;

issued more than 8,000 official warnings;

held about 5,000 presentations in labour collectives and educational institutions.

In 2021, prosecutors supported State charges in more than 1,200 criminal cases on extremist crimes against more than 1,600 people. The principle of inevitability of liability was implemented in all cases.

The trials resulted in no acquittals.

Penalties were increased for 28 persons basing on prosecutor’s protests, brought due to disagreement between the positions of public prosecutors and court rulings.

Organizers of crimes of an extremist character, as well as persons convicted of committing acts of terrorism, are subject to most stringent measures of responsibility.

The law enforcement system has also been solving the daily tasks of ensuring law and order, the problematic issues of common crime.

A significant proportion of all crimes committed in 2021 were cybercrimes (15,503, or 17.5%). Mostly elderly and gullible people suffered from them.

Issues of combating cybercrime were considered in April 2021 at the meeting of the Republican Coordination Meeting on Combating Crime and Corruption – an action plan was developed, the emphasis was put on prevention and work with the people. Relevant measures are also being implemented by the Council of Ministers.

Last year the tendency to growth of the number of such crimes was reversed – their number decreased by 39 %, or from 25,575 to 15,503.

In 2021, the number of drug crimes increased by 31 %, or from 3,620 to 4,707, including facts of sale – by 43 %, from 1,780 to 2,545. An increase in these crimes was noted in all regions of the Republic, psychotropic substances began to be seized significantly oftener. Most drug crimes are committed using the Internet.

The increasing incidence of deaths of citizens as a result of drug overdose also testifies to the continuing drug threat.

The problem of involving minors in drug trafficking is also relevant.

For reference. In 2021, 111 minors committed drug-related crimes (366 in 2015, 211 in 2016, 101 in 2017, 59 in 2018, 57 in 2019, and 36 in 2020).

According to the shortcomings noted, the prosecutors submitted acts of prosecutorial action to heads of Departments of Internal Affairs. This issue will be under control in the current year.

There is a decrease by 41 %, or from 1,806 to 1,064, in the number of detected corruption crimes, more efficient work of law enforcement bodies in this area is required.

This year, the coordination and supervisory activities of the Prosecution authorities will be aimed at combating extremism, improving the efficiency of law enforcement agencies in combating corruption and drug trafficking.

Supervision over enforcement of legislation was focused on fulfilling the instructions of the Head of State, ensuring the safety of the population, as well as children’s well-being.

Last year, the number of fires increased by 4 %, or from 6071 to 6308 and the number of people who deceased in fires – by 6 %, or from 633 to 672). This indicates shortcomings in the system of state fire supervision and local authorities.

Since June 2021, prosecutors have been checking compliance with fire safety regulations in each such case, establishing the causes and conditions that contributed to the incidents.

During the winter heating season, the Prosecutor General’s Office conducts inspections in areas with an unfavorable situation, the results of which are planned to be communicated to the Government.

Child safety and child injury prevention were also the focus for prosecutors in 2021. More than 300 inspections were conducted, about 700 acts of prosecutorial supervision were issued, more than 600 persons were brought to disciplinary responsibility. Taking into account the work done, proposals were made to the Council of Ministers, including those of a legal nature, to eliminate the revealed shortcomings.

In particular, violations were revealed during the operation of sideshows and inflatable gaming equipment.

In all regions of the Republic, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs operated this equipment with gross violations of technical standards, the failure to comply with which created a real threat to the health of children.

The Prosecution Service ensured the protection of other rights of minors.

In particular, in most schools in the capital and the Minsk region, norms for maximum number of students per class were exceeded, and the work of after-school groups was not properly ensured.

In 370 out of 467 (79 %) kindergartens in Minsk, there were facts of overcrowding in groups, which violated sanitary norms and rules, caused social tension, and limited the opportunities for children to receive education close to home.

In addition, in all regions of the country, numerous violations in the organization of catering, including failure to comply with natural norms and sanitary requirements, were revealed in educational institutions.

Information was sent to the Council of Ministers with proposals to analyze this issue and take measures to improve catering.

A separate area of ​​prosecutorial supervision is compliance with legislation in the field of agro-industrial complex.

In the course of inspections, facts of mismanagement, violations of technological and veterinary standards were revealed. As a result, the country’s economy suffered damage.

In response to the identified violations, the Prosecutor General’s Office issued prosecutor’s notices to chairmen of Regional Executive Committees.

For reference. The Prosecution bodies submitted 2,000 acts of prosecutorial supervision, brought more than 3,200 persons to administrative and disciplinary responsibility.

484 lawsuits were brought to the courts in the amount of 546.9 thousand rubles for compensation for damage caused by the loss of livestock.

At the request of prosecutors, perpetrators voluntarily reimbursed 346.3 thousand rubles in the pre-trial procedure.

The problem of concealing the death of cattle is still relevant. The main reason for it is non-compliance with the conditions of feeding and maintenance of the cattle.

There are facts of hiding the death of farm animals, which was facilitated by formalism in the work of veterinary services.

More than 350 criminal cases have been initiated, 134 of them by the Prosecution Service.

In 2022, work on checking the conditions for keeping cattle will continue. Increased attention is paid to the efficiency of Regional Executive Committees and veterinary services.

In terms of supervision over the implementation of environmental legislation, facts of non-use of the resource potential of fisheries, violations by tenants, for example, failure to comply with quotas for fishing, obligations to stock water bodies, failure to pay rent, as well as a lack of control over their activities, were found.

The Prosecutor General’s Office also identified legal gaps in the provision of financial services by commercial organizations to citizens, which made it possible to issue loans on essentially enslaving terms (the so-called “money to borrow”). The talk is about more than 2 thousand victims, mostly with low or middle income, including pensioners.

Citizens receiving a loan of 150-300 rubles had to return 10 times as much or more.

As a result of the criminal scheme, the proceeds of solely three affiliated commercial firms that came to the attention of the Prosecutor General’s Office amounted to about 2 million US dollars.

As a result of the inspection, a criminal case was initiated on tax evasion in the amount of 1.7 million rubles.

The National Bank, at the suggestion of the Prosecutor General’s Office, has already organized making amendments to legislation – changes have been made to the relevant Decree of the Head of State.

Timeliness and completeness of payment of wages is on a special control of the Prosecution Service. Due to intervention of prosecutors, the labor rights of more than 6.5 thousand workers were restored, who were paid wages in the amount of almost 11 million rubles.

In connection with numerous complaints of citizens about the quality of provision of housing and communal services, the procedure for operating the housing stock was checked.

A number of violations were revealed during current and major repairs, poor-quality and untimely fulfillment of citizens’ requests by housing and communal services organizations.

The Prosecutor General’s Office will continue the investigation of the criminal case on genocide of the Belarusian people.

Constructive interaction has been established with the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee and archival institutions of the Russian Federation.

The Republic of Belarus is the only State in the post-Soviet space where Prosecution authorities carry out full-scale work to establish all the circumstances of the atrocity of the Nazis and their accomplices, as well as counteract glorification of Nazism.

To date, more than 12,500 people have been interrogated in the case of genocide, more than 400 inspections of the scenes of incidents have been carried out, previously unknown places of mass extermination of civilians have been discovered (Ivanovshchina tract in the Logoisk region, Uruchye tract in the Minsk region, Mochula tract in the Luninets region, Chenkovskoye forestry in the Gomel region).

It is necessary to verify information about more than 100 previously unknown places of mass burial of victims of genocide based on the testimonies of witnesses and archival documents, including those received from Russia.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has prepared reference and analytical materials on this topic, as well as on the ideological resemblance between the Nazis, collaborators and modern politicized extremist formations.

The materials were developed in close cooperation with the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, the National Archives, the Belarusian State Archives of Film and Photo Documents, the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Belarus, the Investigative Committee, the State Security Committee and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as deputies of the House of Representatives.

In order to fulfill the Decree of the Head of State on declaring 2022 the Year of Historical Memory, work has been organized to create exhibitions in museums in all regions of the country, for which the Prosecutor General’s Office also selects thematic materials.

The Council of Ministers was invited to consider the issue of creating a unified memorial complex for the victims of genocide during the Great Patriotic War, as well as to determine the memorial enlarged burial sites of the remains of the victims of genocide, in which, with the observance of rituals and honors, it is supposed to rebury discovered bone remains.

The President supported the initiative of the Prosecutor General’s Office to hold an international conference in 2022 dedicated to the heroism and sacrifices of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War.

Photo: BelTA, screenshot from the Pool of the First Telegram channel, Prosecutor General’s Office, sb.by

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