22/06/22
[…]
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Belarus.
Description of the situation
The Observatory has been informed about the criminal prosecution and limitation of freedom of Andrei Machalau, a human rights lawyer known for providing legal assistance to torture survivors, independent journalists, human rights defenders, and civil and political activists in Belarus.
On June 16, 2022, the Leninsky District Court in Minsk sentenced Andrei Machalau to two years of restriction of freedom with the transfer to an open-type penal institution for “using a false document” under Article 380, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. Mr. Machalau will appeal this decision, and the correctional facility will be determined after the decision on the appeal. During the judicial proceedings, Mr. Machalau’s right to due process was violated. He was denied his right to legal assistance, as his lawyer Vitaliy Braginets was under administrative arrest, and the court refused to reschedule the process to enable participation Mr. Braginets’ participation or to let Machalau to choose a new lawyer. Andrei Machalau was represented by a lawyer appointed by the court, whom he did not know and did not have chance to communicate in advance.
Andrei Machalau has been accused of using an invalid lawyer’s certificate and authorisation to participate in trial as a lawyer while representing a client in court on June 17 and June 18, 2021. Andrei Machalau was deprived of his licence by the disciplinary commission and the council of the Minsk regional Bar Association on May 31, 2021, for “offenses incompatible with the title of a lawyer”. The notice of disbarment was sent to the Andrei Machalau’s old house address. Hence the human rights lawyer was not adequately informed about the decision. On June 18, 2021, Mr. Machalau learned about the decision while representing his client Olga Sinelava, who was prosecuted and subsequently sentenced to two years of restriction of freedom for political reasons, in the courtroom. Subsequently, an investigation for using an invalid document was opened against him.
Human rights lawyers in Belarus working on sensitive cases are subjected to judicial harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention, administrative sanctions, criminal prosecution, and disciplinary sanctions, including disbarment, according to Lawyers for Lawyers and the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights. According to Defenders.by, 60 lawyers have been disbarred in Belarus since 2020, and at least four lawyers are currently detained in trump-up charges. In this framework, the exclusion of Andrei Machalau from the Minsk regional Bar Association is based on politically motivated grounds, as it has become a common practice to persecute lawyers as a form of intimidation.
[…]
https://www.rferl.org/a/belarus-activist-18-months-prison-lukashenka/31906674.html
IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers 
What will they think of next!
LikeLike