20 August 2020, 15:38 | Elena Tolkacheva, TUT.BY
The Coordination Council sees no violation of the law in its proposals to resolve the situation in Belarus. Those are the comments lawyer and member of the Coordination Council Maxim Znak shared with TUT.BY on the statement by the Attorney General that a criminal case is being opened against the Coordination Council.
“We’ve done everything out in the open and transparently; everything is published and available in the Council’s documents. We don’t see any violation of the law there. On the contrary, we see legal actions aimed at restoring the rule of law in the country. If our proposals are a crime, there are big problems with the rule of law in the country,” Maxim Znak stated.
Regarding the public statement by Attorney General Konyuk that a criminal investigation is being opened against the creation of the Coordination Council under Article 361 of the Republic of Belarus’ Criminal Code, the Coordination Council considers it essential to reiterate that the Council’s goals and methods of achieving them are clearly laid out in the Coordination Council’s Charter and adopted Resolution.
“All goals and methods are legal and grounded in the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. Members of the Coordination Council have not called for a seizure of government power, or forcibly changing the constitutional order of Belarus, or treason to the state, or an act of terrorism or sabotage, or any other actions aimed at harming the national security of Belarus,” the Council stated.
On August 20, Attorney General Alexander Konyuk declared that the creation and activities of the Coordination Council are aimed at seizing power and causing harm to the country’s national security.
On this occasion, criminal proceedings were initiated pursuant to Article 361 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. The Main Investigation Department of the Central Administration of the Investigation Committee of the Republic of Belarus opened a criminal case according to the elements of crime according to paragraph 3 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus: public calls for seizure of state power or actions aimed at endangering state security, by means of mass media or the Internet.
Prior to that, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is currently in Lithuania, initiated the establishment of the Coordinating Council for the purpose of a peaceful transfer of power in Belarus. She stated that the Coordinating Council was a necessary body to establish dialogue with the government and to ensure the transfer of power. Representatives of civil society, cultural figures, doctors, politicians, lawyers, economic experts and educators have joined the Coordination Council.
The Presidium of the Coordinating Council includes Svetlana Alexievich, Lilia Vlasova, Sergey Dylevsky, Maxim Znak, Olga Kovalkova, Maryia Kalesnikava, and Pavel Latushka.
To date, the Council has held one meeting and given two press conferences, during which Council members repeatedly emphasised that the Coordination Council does not have the goal of seizing power by unconstitutional means.
Later, the Coordination Council announced on August 20 that it had sent official messages to the Attorney General’s Office, the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the KGB, demanding the urgent meetings to discuss “the demands of the majority of Belarus’ citizens laid out in the [Council’s] Resolution”.
