Creation of Main Military Prosecutor’s Office to be discussed in Belarus

The need to create the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office will be discussed in the country – as Belarus’ Prosecutor General Andrei Shved told journalists after his report to the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko

One of the issues discussed during the report was the control and prosecutorial supervision over the situation in the Armed Forces. According to Andrei Shved, the reform of the system of prosecution bodies and the creation of the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office were discussed, “This is due to a number of objective circumstances, including the overall situation that has developed around our country. The Head of State studied these proposals, and instructed to separately once again discuss this issue in a narrow circle with the heads of relevant law enforcement and other state bodies.”

Since September 1st, 2014, the Belarusian Military Prosecutor’s Office and 11 inter-departmental military prosecutor’s offices were liquidated in the country. Powers for exercising supervision over the implementation of legislation in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, other troops and military formations, state bodies in which military service is provided are assigned to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the territorial prosecutor’s offices.

Andrei Shved fundamentally underlined, “This is not a return to the old practice. The Belarusian Military Prosecutor’s Office was liquidated in 2014. Then there was a completely different situation, including the military component was completely different. This is not about recreating in the previous state, but about establishing the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office in a down-seized version, the number of which is several times smaller than the Belarusian Military Prosecutor’s Office. If such a decision is made, military prosecutors will be solely responsible for overseeing the observance of the rule of law in the troops in different periods time and the decision on this will be made only on the basis of the results of an additional meeting with the Head of State.”