Inaction without action

In the criminal case of Belarusian journalists there was only one accused

To be honest, right from August 7, when it all started, it seemed that now, immediately, everything would end. Clows with balls with balls will come out of the investigative corridors and at once, “Surpraise!” Will be conquered. They did not come out. Or, in extreme cases, the head of the Investigative Committee will perform and will say that the mistake came out with reporters. He did not speak. And the criminal case against 15 Belarusian journalists after four months ended only for some, and even then not without loss. And the chief editor of the TUT.BY portal Marina Zolotova even threatens 5 years in prison.

Let me remind you the chronology of this criminal case. It all began on August 7 with the arrival of investigators and riot police as amended by TUT.BY and the Belapan news agency. The arrivals announced a criminal case in connection with unauthorized access to computer information, perfect from “other personal interest, resulting in causing significant harm” (part 2 of article 349 of the Criminal Code of Belarus) and began searches.

Then they came to the editorial office of the newspaper Culture, to the Realt.by real estate portal and home to Deutche Welle observer Pavel Bykovsky. Seven journalists were detained as suspects, eight more were released after interrogations. The reason for initiating a criminal case was, as stated in the UK, the statement of the General Director of the State Information Agency of BelTA Irina Akulovich about the failures when accessing a paid subscription: people who paid for it cannot connect due to unauthorized access of unknown attackers.

Two days later, all the detainees were exempted, charging for the same part of Article 349. The maximum punishment under this article is two years in prison. But the chief editor of TUT.BY Marina Zolotova was charged under part 2 of Article 425 - “Inaction of the official”. The maximum punishment is 5 years in prison. True, the Investigative Committee issued a press release, where he announced that Zolotova pleaded guilty and actively cooperates with the investigation, due to which a decision was made to notify the preventive measure in the form of detention.

And then everyone waited for this criminal case “they would“ put it on the brakes ”. There were simply no other options. Moreover, when it became clear why all this was started: in mid -September, TUT.BY journalist Dmitry Bobrik admitted on his Facebook page that he was recruited on August 7. The beaver, like the rest, was brought for interrogation and began to blackmail. Not the Investigative Committee, of course, is a completely different committee. And Dmitry signed the paper on cooperation. The puzzle began to fold.

Arrest the five journalists - a couple of them will certainly agree to cooperate. Then everything should have stalled quietly - obviously not for the subsequent court, they initiated this criminal case.

But it all did not stall. For three months, journalists were summoned for interrogations in the UK and to the police for dactyloscopy, broadcast on Belarusian television records of “wiretaps”, and the final charges and the amount of damage were brought. The official representative of the UK Julia Goncharova said that the courts cannot be avoided, since criminal cases under Article 349 are in the field of public prosecution and are not subject to termination in connection with the reconciliation of the parties. And when it became clear that the courts would still be, everything suddenly spun in the opposite direction.

At the end of November, all journalists accused under Article 349 in connection with the BelTA business were suddenly transferred to witnesses. Rather, criminal cases were retrained to administrative ones, received receipts about the payment of administrative fines ($ 350) - and we are no longer mercy on the bench, but on a bench in the corridor in anticipation of a witness call. But the court will still be. Over one person - over Marina Zolotova.

She remained the only accused in the case. Moreover, the accused is not of unauthorized access to computer information, but in the inaction of the official. The petition for the termination of the criminal prosecution that Marina filed in the UK remained satisfied. The investigator verbally informed her verbally. So, the court will take place in any weather.

I wonder what this court will look like. If there is criminal inaction, then there must be a criminal action. Almost the law of Newton, only in Belarusian: action gives rise to inaction.

But if there were no criminal acts, as the UK decided, then what will they judge Marina Zolotova for? However, we will find out about this soon. Or maybe in fact it will be revenge for not signing paper about cooperation with another, non -investigative committee? However, we will never know about this.