How the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus makes criminals out of Belsat subscribers | Belarus: a view from Europe – special project DW | DW
On November 3, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus in its official Telegram channel reported on the recognition as a canremist formation and the prohibition of the activities of “a group of citizens united through the Internet resources Belsat. Live and NEXTA, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s channel and some others.
“The practice of the Ministry of Internal Affairs causes confusion”
In accordance with the law “On Counteraction to Extremism,” there is a judicial procedure for recognizing certain materials or organizations as extremist, but an extremist formation does not need a court, a decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the KGB is sufficient. Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, former lawyer Oleg Ageev, draws attention to this aspect in an interview with DW.
Oleg Ageev (photo from archive)
“An extremist formation is always a group of people who are not united in some kind of organizational form. The expert sees a threat in the fact that the very fact of reading, opening or subscribing to any Telegram channel can become the basis for accusing a person of committing a criminal offense.
An important detail: for the distribution of materials recognized by the court as extremist, administrative liability in the form of a large fine and confiscation of the subject of the offense, and “creation of an extremist conduct or participation in it” – this is already the title of an article of the Criminal Code, provides for punishment of up to 10 years in prison.
About the plans of GUBOPiK
The head of the department of the main department for combating organized crime and corruption (GUBOPiK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vyacheslav Orlovsky in an interview with the presidential newspaper Belarus Segodnya spoke about the planned law enforcement practice: role. on the evidence collected. “
In the same place, Orlovsky explained how GUBOPiK sees differences for subscribers: “If he (the channel – Ed.) the status of an extremist formation, then its subscribers can indeed become involved in criminal cases. As for the subscription to channels that are recognized as extremist materials, it is not yet punishable. “.”
“This has nothing to do with law,” says Oleg Ageev. According to him, any person under the jurisdiction of the Belarusian authorities runs the risk of being caught, arbitrarily detained, tortured. “Such” legal “formulations completely untie the hands of the security forces, allow any person who uses the Internet to become a criminal,” the expert says.
Belarusian authorities admit defeat
Political analyst Andrei Yegorov, an analyst of Central Europe of transformation, in an interview with DW expresses the opinion that such actions of the authorities indicate that “they admitted defeat in the information sphere – they do not compete with independent media”, and their only way of countering is the threat of physical violence against people that produce and consume content.
Andrey Egorov (photo from archive)
“Recognition as an extremist shaper is an opportunity to physically put pressure on people so that they do not produce this information, read and disseminate it.
In his opinion, the ruling regime in Belarus raises the rates of responsibility from fines to criminal articles out of despair. “We defeated Tut.by, imprisoned journalists, we limited the distribution of channels, we recognized some of them as extremist – but still, Zerkalo.io has more Telegram subscribers than BelTA,” – this is the logic of the authorities, according to Andrey Yegorov. The political scientist sums up: “This is an attempt to danger the situation, so that people are afraid to even look in the wrong direction.”
Both Ageev and Yegorov see analogies with Soviet times, when people were afraid to listen to foreign “voices”. Of course, not every user wants to take risks. “But the reduction in the audience will not be dramatic,” Yegorov said. “As soon as something important happens, people will need information.”
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