Lukashenko signs law on amnesty

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed the law "On Amnesty in connection with the National Unity Day," BelTA informs with reference to the press service of the Belarusian leader.

The document was developed on behalf of the head of state. An integral feature of the penal policy in Belarus is to show humanity to persons serving different types of criminal punishment. One of the forms of implementation of this principle is amnesty. The state gives an opportunity to reformed convicts to be released early from serving their sentences. At the same time, the amnesty applies only to persons who are positively characterized during the period of serving their sentence and have set out on the path of correction.

The law defines the categories of persons subject to exemption from punishment and other measures of criminal liability for crimes that do not pose a great public danger or belong to the category of less serious crimes. These include minors; pregnant women; women and single men with children under the age of 18, except for those who committed a crime against a minor; those who have reached the generally established retirement age; disabled persons of groups I and II; certain persons suffering from a number of diseases; veterans of combat operations in the territory of other countries; victims of the Chernobyl disaster, other radiation accidents; those who received wounds (contusions), mutilation, diseases during military service or in connection with the performance of military service.

Provision is also made for the exemption from punishment of persons sentenced with suspended execution of punishment, with conditional non-application of punishment, without assignment of punishment, the sentences in respect of which were passed on the day of entry into force of the law; sentenced to punishment in the form of arrest, as well as a number of other categories of convicts.

Taking into account a certain legislative order, the reduction of the punishment term for each condemned person will be considered individually.

At the same time the law on amnesty will not apply to those who have committed terrorist or extremist crimes. The document also contains a number of other cases in which the amnesty will not apply.

Traditionally, application of the law will be carried out only to persons who are positively characterized during the period of serving sentence, as well as fully compensated for the damage caused by the crime.

According to preliminary calculations, as a result of the amnesty it is planned to release from criminal punishment about 4.5 thousand convicts, including 1.6 thousand from places of detention.