The Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office has identified violations in the police's work regarding the administrative prosecution of domestic abusers

The Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office analyzed the effectiveness of the internal affairs bodies' work in bringing citizens who commit domestic violence to administrative responsibility.

The identification of administrative offenses in the sphere of family relations, the timely bringing to administrative responsibility of persons prone to domestic violence, is the basis for their timely registration and preventive work, forms an administrative base for sending individuals to treatment and labor dispensaries, initiating criminal cases of a preventive nature, and affects the overall crime rate.

For reference: according to statistical data, in 2019, courts of the region considered 8,511 cases of administrative offenses under Part 2 of Article 9.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses: administrative penalties were imposed in 4,647 cases, and 3,864 cases of administrative offenses were terminated, which amounted to 45.4%.

By the decision of the interdepartmental meeting "On the effectiveness of bringing persons committing domestic violence to administrative responsibility under Part 2 of Article 9.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus" dated May 31, 2019, an algorithm for interaction between the prosecutor's office and internal affairs bodies of the Vitebsk region on bringing citizens who commit domestic violence to administrative responsibility (hereinafter referred to as the algorithm) was approved.

In 2019, within the framework of this algorithm, employees of the regional internal affairs bodies submitted 641 petitions to the prosecutor for initiating administrative proceedings under Part 2 of Article 9.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, of which 498 (77%) petitions were granted, and administrative proceedings were initiated. In 492 (98%) cases of administrative offenses of this category, courts made decisions to impose administrative penalties.

The results of the analysis indicate that, despite the provisions of the algorithm, employees of the regional internal affairs bodies commit certain shortcomings and violations when deciding on the initiation of administrative proceedings under Article 9.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus. In particular, a number of violations of procedural legislation norms were established at various stages of administrative proceedings, which in turn entails

return of administrative cases by the court for new preparation and, as a consequence, excludes grounds for taking individual preventive measures against domestic abusers.

The grounds for prosecutors to return materials with a refusal to send requests for the initiation of administrative proceedings were the improper fulfillment by police officers of the requirements for a full clarification of all circumstances subject to establishment when obtaining explanations from conflict participants and incomplete clarification of the grounds for the necessity of initiating administrative proceedings by the prosecutor's rights (Braslav, Verkhnedvinsk, Gorodok and other regions).

The reason for prosecutors' decisions to refuse to satisfy requests for the initiation of administrative proceedings in many cases was the lack of sufficient data indicating signs of an administrative offense provided for by Part 2 of Article 9.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Belarus (Beshenkovichi, Gluboksky, Dubrovensky, Orshansky districts).

Particular criticism was caused by the actions of police officers in establishing the fact of inflicting psychological violence (Beshenkovichi, Gluboksky districts).

Based on the results of the analysis, the regional prosecutor's office sent an information note to the Head of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee on the state of legality in the activities of the Internal Affairs bodies regarding compliance with the legislation on the prevention of offenses and crimes in the sphere of family and domestic relations, which proposed to take effective measures to eliminate the identified violations, and also pointed out the need to properly organize the activities of territorial subdivisions and district police inspectors.

The results of the review of the information note are under the control of the regional prosecutor's office.

Senior Assistant Regional Prosecutor
Natalia Kolpakova