Famous Belarusian human rights activist Harry Pahanyaila thinks detentions of the street action “We Demand International Investigation!” violated the law.

“Such an action doesn’t fall under the law on mass street events. There are at least two resolutions of the Supreme Court in this regard. They say that people standing in silence with portraits of disappeared persons are not considered participants of pickets and other mass events.

We, the human rights activists, also think there were no elements of crime in the actions of the street action participants. On the contrary, citizens perform their civil duty demanding fair investigation, protecting the rights of the disappeared persons’ families. Such actions will be held again and again. This proves that our people really remember those facts, which is extremely useful for upbringing civic consciousness, upbringing a socially responsible person,” Harry Pahanyaila told in an interview to charter97.org.

Besides, the human rights activist noted that the Belarusians have the right to demand carrying out an international investigation of the disappeared people’s cases and have appropriate mechanisms at their disposal.

“There are forms of international investigation within the framework of the UN Security Council. The Belarusian opposition addressed this institution sending appeals to foreign ministers of the Council’s permanent members. Besides, there’s a universal criminal jurisdiction in legislation of the countries that ratified international agreements and have necessary judicial instruments in the national legislation.

A country may initiate criminal proceedings even if the crimes were committed beyond its borders. It concerns crimes against humanity, extrajudicial executions, tortures, and kidnapping. In such cases, the suspects are put on the Interpol wanted list and can be arrested and stand trial.

There have been such precedents in Germany, Belgium, Spain and other countries. Of course, there are some nuances, but we know that a Spanish judge opened a case against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The latter was arrested at Heathrow airport, returned to Chile and stood trial there,” the human rights defender told.

Charter`97