English

Prosecutor General’s Office refuses to consider Mahilyow resident’s complaint about Council of Republic chairman

The Prosecutor General’s Office has recommended Alyaksey Pawlowski, an independent trade union activist in Mahilyow, to send a complaint against the chairman of the Council of the Republic, Anatol Rubinaw, to Dr. Rubinaw himself.

The complaint about the failure of Dr. Rubinaw to answer a petition to bestow a state award on Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s youngest son Kolya was filed with the Prosecutor General’s Office on May 22.

In its reply, the Office says that if Mr. Pawlowski is dissatisfied with decisions by representatives of the Council of the Republic, he may complain about them directly to the chairman of the upper parliamentary house.

The Office says that it is not empowered to examine the behavior of the leadership of the Council of the Republic for compliance with regulations.

“It turns out that Belarus has a caste of untouchable people who may do whatever they like without any regard for laws and the constitution,” Mr. Pawlowski commented to BelaPAN. “The reply by the Prosecutor General’s Office shows its helplessness. If 133 people sign a petition and receive no reply within three months, what rule of law can we talk about?”

Mr. Pawlowski suggested that the 74-year-old Rubinaw had not answered the petition because he was too old and unable to perform his professional duties. “It makes no sense to keep him on the government’s employ,” he concluded.

As Mr. Pawlowski earlier told BelaPAN, he decided to draw up the petition for presenting a Nations’ Friendship Order to the eight-year-old Kolya Lukashenka after seeing him accompany his father on a trip to Venezuela and a three-leg Asian tour this past March.

Kolya was seen standing at the side of a teary-eyed Mr. Lukashenka in front of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez’s casket in Caracas. He also traveled together with the Belarusian leader to Indonesia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

"Visiting a foreign country in company with a child helps establish friendly relations more efficiently. Seeing you with a child makes rejecting your request for help an uneasy task," Mr. Pawlowski quipped.

According to the caustic petition, Kolya "sacrifices his childhood and health for the sake of our country`s prosperity" and takes on his father’s "priceless" experience of ruling a country.

Mr. Pawlowski sent the petition to Mr. Lukashenka, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and to Dr. Rubinaw. The Presidential Administration of Russia subsequently informed him that it had transferred his letter to the Presidential Administration of Belarus. //BelaPAN