Pavel Sapelka: “The award belongs to those, who struggled beside me, upholding the understanding of the freedom and independence of legal profession”
These days, human
rights lawyer Pavel
Sapelka has been presented
the prestigious Human Rights Award 2012, awarded
to him by the Council of Bars and Law
Societies of Europe (CCBE). CCBE unites
about 1 million of European
lawyers of Bars and Law
Societies.
“The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe
(CCBE) granted Sapelko for his courage and perseverance to support
the campaign “Human rights activists against death penalty” for
the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus. Belarus is Europe’s
last dictatorship. Many lawyers cannot practice their professional
duties. Sapelko was a member of the Presidency of the Minsk City Bar.
He was also involved in defending opposition members and political
prisoners who were arrested after the last Belarusian presidential
elections in December 2010. Regardless the threats by the state
Sapelko continued to carry out his work. However, in March 2011
Sapelko the Ministry of Justice disbarred him. Now Sapelko works as a
consultant for the Human Rights Centre “Viasna”," reads
the organization's press-release.
During
his speech at the award ceremony Pavel Sapelka
said: "Today is an important day in my life. Day
by day, every lawyer takes
part in struggle for the interests of those
who entrust him with their destiny, their interests and sometimes
life. We have chosen this profession, and the profession has given us
not only hardships and
tribulations, but also the
triumph of victory.
I had a similar
feeling when, after many years of stagnation,
the Minsk City Bar Association for the first time openly and
democratically chose their leadership. I was touched that my
colleagues entrusted me to head the Presidium
of the Bar Association. Those were hard times
when we encountered attempts by the Ministry of Justice to interfere
with our activities,
but our relationship with the executive branch had the nature of the
competition, as far as the
Ministry did not have the right to cancel the decisions
of the Presidium of the Bar by the law, and could not take action
directly to individual lawyers.
The
events of 19 December 2011 put an end to my
hopes that democratic changes
are possible within a
single institution in a non-democratic state.
A few days after
the presidential elections in Belarus most of the presidential
candidates, heads of
their election headquarters and
leaders of opposition parties and movements were
arrested.
Hundreds of participants
of peaceful assemblies
were sentenced to various terms of arrest.
Their defense was
conducted by lawyers of
the Minsk City Bar Association. The
authorities either did not give objective information about the state
of the arrested, or spread outright lies. Mass
media could receive objective information only from the councels of
the arrested. Similarly, those arrested could
get some information about the processes occurring only from
lawyers.
The State Security Committee (KGB)
immediately stopped the
access of counsels to those arrested who were kept in the KGB
pre-trial prison. Until the end of the investigation, all meetings
with detainees took place only in the presence
of an investigator who thwart any attempts of communication.
Within
the framework of suppression of the activities
of the counsels who defended the accused, the Ministry of Justice
attacked the lawyers with charges of violating
the law. The reason was that the lawyers made
public statements about the physical sufferings of the arrested and
their deprivation of procedural rights.
In
February 2011 the Ministry of Justice annulled
the lawyer's licenses of Aleh and Tatsiana Aheyeus, Uladzimir
Toustsik and Tamara Harayeva. Aleh Aheyeu and Tatsiana Aheyeva were
members of the Presidium of the Minsk City Bar Association.
Aleh
Aheyeu defended the
presidential candidate Aliaksei
Mikhalevich who made
a shocking statement about the tortures to which he had been
subjected there. Uladzimir Toustsik and Tamara Harayeva defended the
journalist Iryna Khalip. The
lawyer Valiantsina Busko was deprived of her license for
participation in a peaceful assembly against the rigged
election results. I and the counsels Tamara
Sidarenka and Uladzimir Bukshtynau (counsels of the presidential
candidate Uladzimir Niakliayeu) lost the right
to practice law a bit later.
A
year after these events, the new Law on the Bar, which legalized the
transformation of an independent institution of the Bar in a fully
controlled by the executive authorities, was
adopted.
Therefore the award
that you handed me, rightfully belongs to all those who struggled
beside me, essentially upholding the true understanding of the
freedom and independence of the legal profession, staying
faithful to their their beliefs and interests
of the clients.
Today,
almost two years after the CCBE supported us, we see
your endless commitment to the idea of
corporate solidarity. Facta sunt potentiora verbis – actions are
more powerful than words.
I truly
believe that the Bar in Belarus is having
difficult times, but
the time will come when we will
take our rightful place in the friendly family of European lawyers,
and Belarus – in the family of European nations. "
Bear
in mind that the counsel Pavel Sapelka has
been defending figurants of politically motivated trials for many
years. He was a defender of Mikalai
Autukhovich, Tsimafei
Dranchuk, represented the interests of Zinaida Hanchar
in the case of the disappearance of her
hsuband Viktar Hanchar in 1999, was
the counsel of a figurant of the "case of
fourteen" Aliaksandr
Barazenka, defended the editor of the
"Navinki"
newspaper Pavel Kanavalchyk in the case of
insulting the president. After the 2010
election campaign he was
the defender of the former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikoau,
the BCD leader Pavel
Seviarynets and the
leader of the "Young Front" Zmitser
Dashkevich. His advocacy
was the reason why he was deprived of the
lawyer's
licence.
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Council
of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) is
an international non-profit association. It
brings together the Bars
and the juridical communities of
31 member countries, 11 countries with the
status of associated members, and observer
countries. CCBE
mediates between the EU, the national
bar associations
and juridical communities
of Europe. In addition, the association works closely with legal
organizations outside Europe.