authorities and make them available to the detained person concerned and his or her
lawyer;
(c)
Strengthen its efforts to ensure the right to have all periods of deprivation
of liberty accurately recorded immediately after arrest in a register at the place of
detention, including the administrative detention, and in a central register of persons
deprived of liberty and to have detention reports drawn up accordingly to prevent any
cases of unrecorded detention. Ensure an access to the register of detainees to their
respective lawyers and relatives;
(d)
Collect data on the performance of the police concerning the provision
of fundamental safeguards to persons deprived of their liberty, including
comprehensive data on cases in which police officers have been subjected to disciplinary
or other measures for failing to respect such safeguards, and provide this information
in its next report to the Committee.
Inadmissibility of confessions obtained through torture and ill-treatment
9.
The Committee remains seriously concerned about allegations that the State party’s
law enforcement officers frequently resort to the use of torture and ill-treatment to extract
confessions from suspects held in pre-trial and temporary detention facilities, and that in
many cases in which defendants in criminal cases have alleged torture before the courts, the
presiding judges have not ordered investigations or declared their confessions to be
inadmissible, even though this is provided for in the State party’s legislation. The Committee
regrets that the State party did not provide information on several cases in which this was
alleged to have occurred, as requested by the Committee (arts. 2, 11, 12 and 15).
10.
The State party should:
(a)
Take further measures to promote its declared policy of zero tolerance of
torture and ill-treatment by publicly and unambiguously condemning torture in all its
forms. The State party should clearly warn law enforcement agencies that any person
committing such acts or otherwise complicit or participating in torture or other illtreatment will be held responsible before the law and subject to penalties proportional
with the gravity of the crime;
(b)
In line with this Committee’s previous recommendation (see
CAT/C/BLR/CO/4, para. 18), ensure that, in practice, statements obtained by torture
are declared inadmissible as evidence in any proceedings, except when invoked against
a person accused of torture. The State party should ensure in its legislation that in any
case in which a person alleges that a confession was obtained through torture, the
proceedings are suspended until the claim has been thoroughly investigated;
(c)
Review cases in which defendants’ claims of having been tortured to
extract confessions were not investigated, such as those of Sergey Khmelevsky, Kirill
Smolyarenko, and Arthur Evglevsky, and conduct prompt and impartial investigations
into the allegations;
(d)
In its next report, provide the Committee with information on cases in
which confessions obtained through torture have been deemed inadmissible, on the
progress of any investigations undertaken into torture allegations made in any past
cases, and on any criminal proceedings brought against public agents who extracted
such confessions, including punishment imposed.
Independence of the judiciary
11.
The Committee welcomes recent amendments made by the State party to its Code on
the Judicial System and the Status of the Judges that transferred responsibility for key aspects
of the functioning of the judiciary from the Ministry of Justice to the Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, the Committee remains concerned that the President of Belarus exerts
significant control over the appointment, promotion or dismissal of judges or prosecutors,
and at frequent reports that judges appear to take direction from the Executive Branch in
reaching decisions in sensitive cases relevant to the Convention. The Committee is also
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