{"id":45165,"date":"2020-10-15T16:47:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T14:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/?p=45165"},"modified":"2025-07-01T21:30:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T19:30:30","slug":"by-2020-10-15-belarusian-authorities-hit-the-lawyers-but-aim-at-their-clients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/by-2020-10-15-belarusian-authorities-hit-the-lawyers-but-aim-at-their-clients\/","title":{"rendered":"BY 2020.10.15 Hit the Lawyers, but Aim at their Clients"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lawyer\u00a0Alexander<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alexander Pylchenko<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pressure on Lawyers<\/strong><\/em><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Suspended License of Lawyer\u00a0Pylchenko<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Attempts to leave clients without legal assistance<\/em><\/strong>,<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Pressure on lawyers and deprivation of their license is, first of all, an attempt to leave their clients without legal assistance<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Whom It Happened<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Qualification Commission on Advocacy Issues under the Ministry of Justice On October 15,\u00a0accepted the recommendation\u00a0to\u00a0suspend the license of lawyer\u00a0Alexander Pylchenko.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pylchenko received a notification about the consideration of this issue on October 7. In the materials that served as the basis for this, there is a printed\u00a0publication\u00a0from the website\u00a0TUT.by<\/em>\u00a0dated August 14, which contains Pylchenko\u2019s commentary on the powers, rights, and obligations of state bodies, including the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also in the materials, there was a printed text of a commentator from a recent release of the ONT TV program, in which he, on the basis of that publication, accused me of allegedly calling someone to something,\u00a0Pylchenko told\u00a0BelaPAN.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pylchenko received his lawyer\u2019s license in 1994. From April 2010 to March 2012, he was the chairman of the Minsk City Bar Association. He was also a member of the Qualification Commission for Advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressure on him\u00a0began in February 2011, when the Minsk City Bar Association decided not to punish colleagues who defended the detained protesters after the December 19, 2010, presidential elections.\u00a0On the basis of the order of the Minister of Justice, Pylchenko was expelled from the qualification commission on issues of advocacy, and then removed from the post of chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Qualification Commission also recommended today to suspend the license of the lawyer\u00a0Yulia Levanchuk.\u00a0She represents the interests of the owner of the flower shop,\u00a0Maxim Khoroshin.<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August, Khoroshin distributed flowers to women who were in chains of solidarity, and on October 13, he was detained and taken to the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Pervomaisky District of Minsk. Later, a video appeared on social networks of a\u00a0badly\u00a0beaten man\u00a0an ambulance takes away from the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yulia Levanchuk received her lawyer\u2019s license in 2009 and is a member of the Brest Bar Association.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why was the license revoked<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As noted in\u00a0comments\u00a0of\u00a0the Ministry of Justice, the qualification commission considered defamatory actions against Alexander Pylchenko that he\u00a0\u201cmade incompetent comments in the media and actually called for illegal actions, including\u00a0\u201c blocking and disarming military units\u00a0\u201d\u2026\u00a0mislead the public about the powers of state bodies and do not comply with procedural norms\u201c<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry of Justice believes that a lawyer\u00a0\u201ccan communicate with the media on any topical issues\u201d.\u00a0At the same time,\u00a0\u201cthe rules of professional ethics of a lawyer establish that when providing information to the media, a lawyer should use only reliable information\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yulia Levanchuk was recommended by the commission to revoke her license on the basis of information received that she\u00a0\u201cinitiated a correspondence with the investigator, in which she made threats against him and his family members\u201d<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political overtones<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pressure on lawyers and revocation of their licenses is, first of all, an attempt to leave their clients without legal assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 9, Viktor Babariko wrote an appeal to the Ministry of Justice in connection with Pylchenko\u2019s summons to the commission.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI regard the intention to deprive my defender of the license as a violation of my right to defense and pressure on me. I no longer have the opportunity to use the legal assistance of attorney Maxim Znak, who was given a power of attorney to represent my interests in courts, including on issues of exercising electoral rights. Now he is in custody, \u201d<\/em> Babariko said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria Kolesnikova\u00a0wrote a similar statement to the Ministry of Justice.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>She stressed that the lawyers\u00a0Maksim Znak\u00a0and\u00a0Ilya Salei, who previously represented her interests,\u00a0are involved in the criminal case and were detained. The lawyer, Lyudmila Kazak, was abducted, placed in a temporary detention facility, and then brought to administrative responsibility.\u00a0According to Kolesnikova, the situation with Pylchenko\u00a0\u201cclearly indicates the insecurity of the implementation\u201d of<\/em>\u00a0her defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revocation of Oleksandr Pylchenko\u2019s lawyer\u2019s license can be regarded as politically motivated, noted\u00a0Tamara Sidorenko, a lawyer of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, in a comment for\u00a0Naviny.by, who defended Uladzimir Nyaklyaev and Ales Mikhalevich in 2011.\u00a0She herself was deprived of her lawyer\u2019s license on formal grounds.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe decision to deprive Pylchenko of his license can be regarded as politically motivated. Attention was drawn to him precisely because he spoke about the socio-political situation in the country. Finally, Pylchenko is a lawyer for individuals, some of whom have been recognized as political prisoners, \u201d<\/em> Sidorenko said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She does not understand \u201cwhat Pylchenko\u2019s comments in the media the Ministry of Justice call incompetent.\u201d <\/em>In addition, in her opinion, the statement of the Ministry of Justice that Pylchenko \u201cactually called for unlawful actions\u201d<\/em> is a value judgment that \u201cis not based on anything \u2013 there is no information about what specific actions the lawyer called for and where exactly the call was contained\u201d \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an attempt to grab a lawyer\u2019s tongue.\u00a0What happened can be regarded as pressure on the lawyer Pylchenko and intimidation of other lawyers, so that it would be discordant, \u201d<\/em>\u00a0Tamara Sidorenko said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u00a0noted that there are other ways to indicate to the lawyer about the mistake,\u00a0\u201cif we admit that there was one.\u00a0\u201cThere are more lenient disciplinary measures for lawyers.\u00a0In the end, in case of a serious violation, the license can be suspended for six months, \u201dthe\u00a0lawyer said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, to Alexander Pylchenko, a lawyer who has extensive experience and \u201cwas not noticed in anything reprehensible,\u201d \u201cextreme measures were immediately taken.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBased on this, the question arises, why is the head off the shoulders at once?\u00a0In the comments of the Ministry of Justice, I do not see the answer to this question.\u00a0Perhaps this answer is contained in the conclusion of the commission, but the public was not informed about it”,\u00a0Sidorenko concluded.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does revocation mean?<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The decision of the qualification commission is approved by the Ministry of Justice. Then the action of the Ministry of Justice can be appealed in court. If the court leaves the department\u2019s decision in force, Pylchenko and Levanchuk will not have the right to engage in advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After three years, you can try to pass the qualifying exam and generally get a new license. However, Tamara Sidorenko does not remember cases when lawyers who had been deprived of their licenses and who were involved in defense in political cases were able to pass the exam again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, Anna Bakhtina<\/strong>, a well-known specialist in Belarus with 13 years of prosecutorial experience and 25 years of experience as a lawyer, was unable to pass the extraordinary qualification exam in 2017. Over the past ten years, she has defended many defendants in high-profile cases with political overtones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/strong>
# https:\/\/defenders.by\/pylchenko_licenserevocation<\/a>
# https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/belarus-tightens-grip-lawyers-2021-08-23\/<\/a>
# In Belarus, Lukashenka’s Government Targets Lawyers And The Legal Profession As A Whole<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander Pylchenko Pressure on Lawyers Suspended License of Lawyer\u00a0Pylchenko Attempts to leave clients without legal assistance, Pressure on lawyers and deprivation of their license is, first of all, an attempt to leave their clients without legal assistance. To Whom It Happened Qualification Commission on Advocacy Issues under the Ministry of Justice On October 15,\u00a0accepted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dictator-lukashenko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionagainstchildabduction.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}