Pardon Commission to consider appeals filed by Sannikau and Bandarenka

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Two political prisoners, Andrej Sannikau and Zmitser Bandarenka, filed requests for pardon. Euroradio has found out that their requests have not been considered yet but the Pardon Commission plans to do it soon.

"Naturally, their requests will be considered, — says member of the Pardon Commission, Deputy Mikalaj Samaseyka. — However, you should know that the Commissions session reminds the room for taking decisions in court. Therefore, I will not tell you what I think not now, not afterwards."

However, Samaseyka could not remember whether the commission considered the requests of other political prisoners, filed back in Summer.

The Commission is summoned by its head, — adds another member of the Commission, head of the Minsk city collegium of lawyers Victar Chaichyts. —The head sends corresponding letters to all members of the commission and they come to the session. I have not received such a letter so far, thus, I know nothing about this".

The Commission consists of more than 10 people, including Chair of the Supreme Court, General Prosecutor, Minister of Justice and the head of the KGB. Deputy head of the President's Administration Valery Mitskevich heads the commission. Euroradio has found out that all these people meet once in two months to consider all the materials which have been collected for this time period.

"The sessions are not held on a regular basis. The Pardon Commission is summoned when there are enough materials to consider. It does not depend on whether it is a notorious case or not, whether the case is important-not important, daily or not. The Commission is summoned when there are enough materials for 2-3 hours of work", - Mikalaj Samaseyka says.

The official says that it is difficult to see any consistent pattern in the Commission's decisions. They decide depending on the circumstances of each case.

"You know, there is nothing like - let us satisfy this request and decline the next one as we have exceeded the limit. There's nothing like this."

Moreover, the Pardon Commission does not decide anything by itself. It only recommends that the state leader should pardon a certain prisoner or not. The final decision is always for Alyaksandr Lukashenka to take. Samaseyka says that a small percentage of requests are satisfied. Only the requests which are filed before the trial after compensation of losses are satisfied by 60-70%.

"The Commission takes decisions of recommendation character. The President takes final decisions." 

Former political prisoner Ales Kirkevich has told Euroradio how the mechanism of filing a pardon request looks like. According to him, a prisoner writes a request on a blank sheet of paper in any words, and states whom this request should be sent to on the envelope. The requests are handed in to a representative of the administration of a colony or a prison. 

"Then I waited, — Ales Kirkevich recalls. — I waited for a couple of weeks, or a week, as far as I remember... The release was a sort of unexpected. No one warned us on anything. It took about 40 minutes to get ready and that was all".