The letter, in particular says: “We, former Belarusian lawyers, including those who have been denied the right to work just for the honest performance of their professional duties, learnt from the information spread in the statement of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, about the cases of termination and suspension of the legal practice in respect to a number of Ukrainian lawyers, as well as about the consideration of a large number of disciplinary cases.Such lawyers as Volodymyr Vysotsky, Roman Martynovsky, Mykola Siry, Olha Mashkarynets, Nadia Baranska, Larissa Herasko and others (total number of more than 20 people) are among those, who were mentioned in the letter There is also information about the threat of criminal prosecution of the Ukrainian lawyers, who do not recognize the present structure of bodies of advocate self-government.
The advocate’s assessment of certain aspects of the new Ukrainian Criminal Procedure Code, as well as making public the personal position regarding the correctness of decisions of one of the lawyers’ congresses were used as the grounds for the punishment. Such cases, as well as reports of a split in the Ukrainian Bar Association, indicate, in our opinion, the oncoming deep crisis of the legal profession in Ukraine.”
Belarusian lawyers warned Ukrainian colleagues that “these events have taken place in Belarus in 2011, and led to the actual elimination of the independence of the legal profession in our country. Endless inspections of lawyers by the Ministry of Justice, the involvement of advocatory self-government in the persecution of lawyers, regular complaints on attorneys’ critical statements in the press, mass recertification of lawyers, eventually led to the deprivation of lawyers’ licenses from some and to forced quitting the profession of other lawyers. The result of the indifference of the majority of lawyers to their position and the active intervention of the state in the work of the independent Institute was the adoption of the new Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Legal Profession and Legal Practice”, which was originally planned as a progressive document, but in its current version definitively deprived the independence of lawyers and turned the legal profession into structural unit of the Ministry of Justice.
We remind, that it was exactly the Ukrainian lawyers and human rights defenders who were the first to give their voice of support for independence of the Belarusian legal profession during a wave of repression on the Belarusian Bar Association in January 2011. In turn we express our support to the defenders of the independence of lawyers and to Ukrainian lawyers who are subjected to pressure.”
Appeal to the Ukrainian lawyers is signed by Uladzimir Bukshtynau, Aleh Aheyeu, Ihar Rynkevich, Liudmila Ulyashyna, Raman Kislyak, Andrei Varvashevich, Pavel Sapelka, Tamara Sidarenko, Tatsiana Aheyeva, Hary Pahaniayla.
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