I have much experience with the judiciary in Belarus; I have been in prison more than 10 times. And I must say that in Belarus there is a building that has signs on it that read “Supreme Court” and “Constitutional Court”, but these are just on the exterior. There is no interior content. There is no independent judiciary.
That system exists. All the judges are appointed by Alexander Lukashenko. There are no exceptions. It is very developed and is what we call the “telephone right”, where a judge makes his decision when called by the administration without looking at the constitution and the legislation.
I can give you an example so that you'll understand me completely. There was a case that led to a young person being sent to jail for 15 days because, as it said in the decision, he yelled out anti-presidential slogans. This young man was deaf and incapable of speaking. He could not have yelled out anything. This was his personal tragedy. And they condemned him to prison. This is just an example of the judicial actions of Belarus.
We have a huge problem facing us. There will be changes. There will be changes in government in Belarus, and the judicial system we have today will be a huge issue for a new democratic Belarus, for a new European Belarus. Here, we need the assistance, experience, and expertise of Canada. It would be very relevant for us.
As for investigation of killings, murders, and the stealing away of people, this is something that the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE has discussed. It's a very relevant topic today, just before the presidential campaign.