Lawyer Anton Gashinsky in Belarus worked on high-profile political cases – he defended employees of the Press Club, employees of PandaDoc, media manager Andrei Alexandrov, political strategist Vitaly Shklyarov, Russians Sofya Sapega and Yegor Dudnikov. Like many Belarusian lawyers, in July he was deprived of his license, but in September he received a lawyer’s badge in Russia. Now he calls on his Belarusian colleagues to do the same and hopes that “a whole bunch of” lawyers from Belarus will work in Russia.
DW was able to speak with a renowned lawyer.
DW: It took only two months between the deprivation of a lawyer’s license in Belarus and your receipt of a lawyer’s badge in Russia. Is this such a simple procedure?
Anton Gashinsky: The procedure is quite lengthy, but I started it in the spring – even before I lost my license in Belarus. In Russia, the legal education received in Belarus is accepted, the experience of advocacy was also credited to me. It is necessary to pass the exam in two stages – and the day of the oath is appointed.
And then there are technical issues – to find a place of work. Now I am negotiating with several bar associations. On the one hand, they were very successful – they want a whole group of us, Belarusians, to be pulled up, and we could close the whole direction. I can say that this collegium also deals with political matters – criminal, administrative, and protects oppositionists in Russia. In fact, our profile.
– Do you know a lot of Belarusian lawyers who are ready to work in Russia and go through the same procedures?
– Now several colleagues who have problems with licenses in Belarus are submitting documents to the Chamber of Advocates in Russia. In addition to lawyers, there are also former employees of the courts, who also, let’s say, could not work in the existing reality and were forced to leave. After the news that I became a lawyer in Russia appeared, many lawyers began to write me messages with questions. They also want to move here to work.
– You will be able to protect only Russians orand Belarusians too?
– I can work with citizens of any country, regardless of where they are and by what law I will advise them. But there is a question about participation in the courts, access to the pre-trial detention center. In Russia, there are no restrictions, and in Belarus, Russian lawyers are considered foreign, despite the fact that there are many agreements between the countries, including an agreement on the creation of the Union State.
The latest roadmaps speak, among other things, of equal access of citizens and business entities to the markets of both countries. We hope that these roadmaps will be implemented and that there will be an opportunity to work in Belarus. If not, you will need to get into the register of foreign lawyers in Belarus. The procedure is quite complicated – you have to go through an interview at the Ministry of Justice, and we understand that it will be very subjective. But whoever does not risk, he does not drink champagne, we will try.
– Wasn’t it easier to find an opportunity to continue working in Belarus?
– The most important event that took place in the legal environment is the changes to the Law on the Bar, which completely destroyed the independent legal profession, law offices and individual lawyers, which allowed the Ministry of Justice to drive all lawyers through a sieve and weed out those who should not work.
It is clear that in such conditions it will be difficult to work in Belarus even with a lawyer’s license. Several bosses appear above you, you can no longer manage your account, carry out collective protection. The revocation of a license is a technical moment that has given us an acceleration. Russia is one of the directions. There are plans to obtain the statuses of lawyers in Ukraine. This will allow us to work in virtually three countries at once: Ukraine, Russia and Belarus and cover many of the needs of our clients from Belarus, who were forced to relocate to Ukraine, to Russia.
– You continue to advise the parents of Sophia Sapieha. How big are the chances for her pardon, release, extradition to Russia?
Sophia Sapega
– According to Sophia, the situation is quite clear: it was expected that house arrest would be extended. Why? Sophia Sapega entered into a pre-trial agreement. Its result should be a trial, after a trial – a verdict. And when it comes into legal force, Sophia will have the opportunity to appeal to the president with a petition for clemency, for release from punishment. Although today they are discussing, among other things, Sofia’s appeal to the President for exemption from criminal liability before the court verdict. The damage is insignificant, it is not difficult to pay it in the amount of 200 percent.
– What kind of damage can we talk about, this is not an economic matter …
– We can assume that this is income that was received for some actions, for example, for maintaining a telegram channel. For example, if someone sells drugs, they receive criminal income because they are engaged in illegal activities. To apply an amnesty or pardon, this income must be repaid in two times. Here the question can be considered by analogy.
– Are Russians, who are judged on “political affairs” in Belarus, treated more leniently than Belarusians?
– In the case of Tikhanovsky, which is being considered in Gomel, is the Russian blogger Dmitry Popov, he faces a longer term. This case will be a litmus test that determines whether all Russians are really treated well by law enforcement agencies, the judicial system, or whether this attitude is selective.
– In Belarus, political prisoners cannot apply for early release, their conditions in colonies worsen. Will convicted Russians be able to avoid this if extradited to Russia?
– In Russia, serving a sentence may be easier, the conditions are not so tough – there are additional dates, you can have a refrigerator, and so on. According to the articles recognized as extremist in Belarus, one can count on the replacement of punishment, and on parole, and on amnesty. The chance to enter the territory of Russia will be much higher than in Belarus. According to extremist articles, they will be imprisoned in Belarus from call to call, under special control and supervision by the administration of the colony.
I suppose that there are two legal bases in Belarus today. One is the one that we know is public, and the second is the legal framework under the heading “Top secret” or “For official use”. It is she who is guided by the employees of the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Department of the Execution of Punishments. This is, of course, a big problem when there are two parallel realities. It shouldn’t be like that, but today it is.
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