The UN Working Group recognized violations of the rights of political prisoner and lawyer Vital Brahinets
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) reviewed the case of political prisoner and lawyer Vital Brahinets and concluded that Belarus had violated his rights. The complaint to WGAD was prepared by lawyers of a human rights organization Respect-Protect-Fulfill and the Belarusian Association of Human Rights Lawyers.
WGAD admitted that Brahinets' imprisonment was motivated by discrimination based on political views and his status as an "opposition lawyer", since he defended clients in politically motivated trials. The arbitrariness of his detention is also supported by the fact that he was arrested for exercising his rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly. In addition, the lawyer's right to a fair trial was grossly violated. Thus, the working group agreed with the conclusions that there is no independent judicial system in Belarus, and noted that Belarusian judges conduct "indictment" proceedings, violating the presumption of innocence, hide court proceedings from the public; defendants often have problems with access to lawyers, and those lawyers who work on such cases are often under a non-disclosure agreement.
WGAD also admitted that two consecutive administrative arrests of Vital were actually part of the criminal prosecution and were used to gain access to the suspect without granting him the necessary procedural rights. During the arrest, Brahinets was not informed about the charges against him, which is also a violation. The arrest and detention of the lawyer were arbitrary, since they were initially authorized by the prosecutor, not by the court, and during the entire 10 months of detention, alternative measures not related to deprivation of liberty were not considered.
The Working Group found a violation of a number of Vital's rights, called for the immediate release of the lawyer and ensuring his right to compensation, as well as the search and punishment of those responsible for the arbitrary detention of the political prisoner. Information about this case has also been shared with a number of UN special rapporteurs so that they can respond to the situation.
Vital Brahinets is a lawyer who defended some political prisoners, including Ales Bialiatski, as well as lawyer Andrei Machalau, who was left unrepresented during his trial due to Vital's arrest. Brahinets was convicted of four criminal offences: inciting social hatred (Part 3 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code), calling for sanctions (Part 3 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code), creating an extremist formation or participating in it (Part 1 of Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code) taking an active part in actions that grossly violate public order (Part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code). His sentence was eight years in a medium security penal colony.
