MINSK, 3 July (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko has signed the law on an amnesty on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Belarus’ liberation from Nazi invaders. The document was published on the website of the national legal information registry on 3 July, BelTA has learned.
The law establishes a list of categories of convicted persons, who are subject to exemption from punishment and other criminal liability measures. Such categories include, in particular, minors; pregnant women; women and single men with children under the age of 18 except for those who have committed a deliberate crime against a minor; persons who have reached retirement age; persons with disabilities of groups 1 and 2; persons with an active form of tuberculosis and oncological diseases; citizens affected by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant catastrophe; persons who were injured or became ill in the line of duty during their military service period.
At the same time the law defines the categories of individuals, who are not eligible for the amnesty. For instance, those are people, who received amnesty or pardon in 2021-2024 and who committed a deliberate crime once again during a period of unexpunged or outstanding conviction; individuals who, as of the day of sentencing or as of the day the sentence comes into force, have not fully compensated for the harm (damage) caused by their crimes, have not repaid the income obtained by criminal means as well as the income received from the use of property obtained by criminal means or bought using money acquired by criminal means; individuals who have committed a particularly dangerous repeated offence or are recognized in accordance with the established procedure as particularly dangerous recidivists; individuals who have had the death penalty commuted to imprisonment or life imprisonment via the pardon procedure. There are also other categories ineligible for the amnesty.
Decisions on granting the amnesty will be made case by case.
BelTA reported earlier that during a solemn assembly held in the Palace of the Republic on 2 July in anticipation of Independence Day Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko did not rule out the possibility that people convicted of rioting in 2020 may be released.
“Don’t be surprised that extremely ill people (this is how they are described in mass media) will be released from prisons in several days. Those are people, who didn’t manage to flee and are in prisons. They were intent on destroying the country in 2020,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “These are truly people with grave illnesses. Mostly with cancer. We approach everyone and treat everyone humanely. I believe that people in distress have no citizenship and we should help them. Because we are Slavs. We don’t want wars. We don’t want conflicts but if we get involved, we are forced to respond.”
