MINSK, 19 April (BelTA) – Amendments to several Belarusian laws on fighting terrorism were given their first reading in the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament on 19 April, BelTA has learned.
The bill provides for amending the Criminal Code, the law on fighting terrorism, and the Administrative Violations Code.
The document will amend Article 290-1 of the Criminal Code. Terrorism financing will now include the financing of travel expenses for individuals as they travel to terrorist training camps. Article 11.80 of the Administrative Violations Code will be amended to enable administrative prosecution for such actions.
Presenting the document, Igor Sergeyenko, First Deputy Chairman of the State Security Committee of Belarus (KGB), noted that the law on fighting terrorism will include the term “critical installations”. Such installations include social facilities, manufacturing premises, engineering and transport infrastructure, energy infrastructure, information and communication infrastructure, and other kinds of infrastructure. If a terrorist attack destabilizes their operation, it can lead to the destabilization of public order, achievement of other terrorist goals, and human casualties. Once the term is codified, lawmakers will no longer have to redefine it in consequent documents. The responsibility of government agencies and other organizations to ensure the security of such installations will be stipulated.
Apart from that, the competence of state security agencies and the border service in fighting terrorism will be adjusted. The authority of the Belarus President Security Service to make decisions to set up an operational HQ to control a counterterrorism operation will be clarified. The procedure to recognize an organization as a terrorist organization will be improved.
“The KGB has been chosen as the national agency to contact the UN Security Council's relevant committee on sanctions. Among other things prohibitions and restrictions on travels of individuals on the sanction list across the Belarusian state border will be introduced,” explained the first deputy chairman of the State Security Committee of Belarus.
