The house of representatives National Assembly of Belarus on Thursday in the second reading adopted amendments to the criminal code, which mitigated the punishment for certain crimes in drug trafficking sphere

The house of representatives National Assembly of Belarus

The parliamentarians voted for the reduction of the lower limits of punishment in parts 2 and 3 of article 328 of the criminal code of Belarus

The house of representatives National Assembly of Belarus

The house of representatives National Assembly of Belarus on Thursday in the second reading adopted amendments to the criminal code, which mitigated the punishment for certain crimes in drug trafficking sphere. The parliamentarians voted for the reduction of the lower limits of punishment in parts 2 and 3 of article 328 of the criminal code of Belarus, reports “Interfax”.

So, will be reduced the lower limit of punishment part 2 (turnover for the purpose of sale) from five to three years of imprisonment under part 3 (the same crime committed by a group of persons on a large scale or previously convicted for drugs) from eight to six years imprisonment.

“The decline of the lower limits of punishment is not a relief for the distributors of drugs, but will allow the courts to apply punishment in a wider range,” said a member of the Committee on national security house of representatives Alexander Bogdanovich, presenting in the Parliament a bill.

In December 2018, during its consideration of the bill in the second reading the deputies decided to withdraw from his planned easing of sanctions in parts 2 and 3 of article 328 of the criminal code. The leniency for some drug crimes were excluded from the bill because of unwithdrawn objections of principle, some government agencies, including the interior Ministry.

The Chairman of the house of representatives Vladimir Andreichenko noted that the amendment passed wide public discussion. “But a unanimous opinion today in no society, and no deputies. Therefore, it is necessary to work”, – said the speaker.

Adopted on first reading by the lower house of Parliament amendments to article 328 of the criminal code envisaged a reduction of the lower limit of punishment part 2 (turnover for the purpose of sale) from five to three years of imprisonment under part 3 (the same crime committed by a group of persons on a large scale or previously convicted for drugs) from eight to six years imprisonment.

Reducing sanctions for drug trafficking without intent to sell (mostly to consumers) is not planned. In this part of article provides restriction of freedom for up to 5 years, up to the deprivation of liberty for a term from 2 to 5 years. The upper limit of the punishment for the offence of drug trafficking, provides for 25 years of imprisonment.

Relatives of prisoners and some human rights advocates have repeatedly criticized the appointment by the courts of great sentences of persons who had discovered, in their words, a small dose for personal use.

In the period from 2014 under the 328 articles for alleged drug trafficking were mainly the people aged 16 to 30 years. Then Belarus was flooded with cheap synthetic drugs known as “spice” and “mixture”, and the country decided to fight them in large prison sentences. Over the past five years on the “drug” articles throughout the colonies, there were from 15 to 18 thousand adolescents and young people.

The differences between light and heavy drugs of the Belarusian criminal code does not provide. Long sentences can be not only transferred from hand to hand “herd” or the amount of marijuana measured in hundreds of thousandths of a gram (in the country responsible for the possession of marijuana, for example, does not depend on the weight of the material), but even difficult to find evidence of “intent to sale”.

Activists of the movement “mothers of 328” announced an indefinite hunger strike, demanding a meeting with President Alexander Lukashenko. In their view, amendments, mitigating the effect of “anti-drugs” articles is not enough, says “Now”.

In the summer of 2018 parent activist of the movement “328” already had a two-week hunger strike and achieved a meeting with the head of the presidential administration. However, their requirements for years and have not been executed, and the President of the Supreme court of Belarus Valentin Sukalo called the hunger strike of mothers, “intervention in justice”. So this year they again went to extremes.

“We know how to carry out transactions in the banks. We know how to throw kids like provoke. We know how the investigative committees fabricate these things. And we want to say that the children for so many years is not to blame! – says the participant of the hunger strike Alla Bernal. It’s the time is a terrible time! My villages are in 26, it will be released in 40 years!”

Even after the expiry of former inmates who are pariahs and difficult socializers. As told by participating in the hunger strike Stanislav Zabinski, after his release from prison, he registered at the employment center, but for 1.5 months I could not find a job and got 158 failures. The only reason was the conviction of Stanislav, though he had the necessary experience and has received 5 diplomas. Zabinski now works as a bartender. He is also a member of human rights organization “Time Act”.

Businesswoman Elena Kuzmina participated in last year’s hunger strike and again joined the protest movement “mothers of 328”. When her son was 25, he was sentenced to 9 years in prison for 0,024 grams of marijuana. She says that her son is condemned “simply with”: “No video, no fingerprints, there was no audio and video, nothing happened,” says Elena Kuzmina.

She, like other mothers, advocates for more effective work of the security forces in identifying major drug traffickers, whose cases rarely come before the courts. In December 2016 in Belarus has sentenced a group of individuals who represented the largest network for the sale of drugs. It consisted of 17 people, among them former KGB and the interior Ministry. The total income of this group amounted to more than $ 1.5 million. In January 2019 edition TUT.BY reported that one of the convicts in the case, which is in 2017, has received 8 years of a colony with a reinforced regime, already seen free.