MINSK, 23 December (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko held a working meeting with Chairman of the Supreme Court of Belarus Valentin Sukalo in Minsk on 23 December, BelTA has learned.
The president recalled his meeting with the country's judiciary during the inauguration of the House of Justice and the measures outlined to improve the general jurisdiction court system. “We had a thorough, conceptual conversation with the judicial staff of our country. We agreed to implement a number of proposals of our judges. These proposals make good sense and implementation terms. What is the situation here?” the president asked.
The meeting also focused on high-profile criminal cases that are considered by the Supreme Court. “Will you tell me about the work of the Investigative Committee and the courts on these cases, the cases that are supervised by higher authorities (not only by the president), and that have received a wide public response,” the head of state said.
According to Valentin Sukalo, a national program for the development of the justice system for the next five years was developed in Belarus following the 5 April meeting of the head of state with the judiciary. According to him, the document consists of 23 provisions. “The Supreme Court is the direct executor of 14 of them. Some of them are to be implemented this year,” the head the Supreme Court said. He briefed the president on the things that have already been done this year to implement the program and what needs to be done in a more distant period.
After the meeting Valentin Sukalo told the media about the implemented provisions of the national program. He named the passing of the law on openness of court proceedings, their documentation with the help of modern digital technologies. According to the document, starting from 2020, all trials should be permanently video and audio-fixed. “We have already tested it at the trials in the Supreme Court and made sure that this is a very important, principled position which makes our justice more open, transparent, reduces the conflict of justice, eliminates the number of comments that arise in the course of the process, disciplines the participants of the process,” said the chairman of the Supreme Court.
A database of court decisions is being developed in the country. The database has an open access. “Thus, we make transparent and open not only the justice process itself but also our court decisions,” said Valentin Sukalo.
This year, a law was passed to limit judicial jurisdiction in absolutely indisputable cases and to transfer a part of such cases to the jurisdiction of the executory endorsement. This will reduce the workload on judges so that they can concentrate on the most important and complex cases. The law also helped to reallocate the number of judges within the system without the need for additional staff.
A new provision has been developed to establish pools of judges and requirements for judge candidates. “We are introducing mandatory psychological testing for candidates as of 1 January 2020. It is a rather complicated program, which will make it possible to select not only the best lawyers, but also lawyers who can work in extreme situations, in the conflict zone, public lawyers. In our opinion, this is also very important today,” said the chairman of the Supreme Court.
He named the introduction of the possibility to appeal decisions of the Supreme Court of first instance as one of the major tasks for the judiciary for the coming year. “Up to now such decisions could not be appealed. Today we are developing a legislative act which will let us to appeal the decisions of the Supreme Court of first instance,” Valentin Sukalo said.
He mentioned the establishment of a single economic appeals court in the country and the need to expand the possibilities of appeal courts in all courts, while reducing judicial supervision. “What does it mean in practice? This means that the very process of justice will have to be completed in appeal instance, in regional courts. Appeals against court judgments that have come into force by way of judicial supervision will be limited both in time and by subject. That means that after one year it will be impossible to appeal against decisions of the court of appeal instance. This will give legal certainty to the participants of the process so that they would not be in a suspended, uncertain state for a long period of time,” Valentin Sukalo said. According to him, it will be possible to correct judicial mistakes in any period of time upon protest of the prosecutor general or the chairman of the Supreme Court.