Alexei was sentenced for distribution despite only sharing some cannabis with his girlfriend. Every year in Belarus, several thousand people go to jail for violating Article 328 of the Belarusian Criminal Code or “illicit trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances, their precursors and analogs.” The duration of imprisonment ranges from two years for manufacturing, acquisition, or possession of drugs without intent to twenty five years for drugs dealing if it results in the death of a person. In the first half of 2017, 1,568 people were convicted of drug-related crimes, according to official reports. In 2016, courts in Belarus sentenced 3608 people and almost 4000 a year earlier. Independent lawyers and human rights activists believe that about 12,000 to 13,000 young people have been convicted in the past three years.[...]
In Belarus, where all key decisions are taken by the head of state or under his direct control, drug policy could not be designed without the participation of President Alexander Lukashenko. In December 2014, during a meeting on illicit drug trafficking, the president, in his characteristic manner, declared war on drugs. “I should have broken your necks, like of ducklings, a long time ago,” the President swore at representatives of police and other law enforcement agencies, lamenting that their actions were tardy and conditioned by expectations of the conclusions of special committees and commissions. As a result of that meeting, the commander-in-chief gave the Minister of Internal Affairs full powers to coordinate the actions against drug trafficking. He also made a proposal to increase the duration of imprisonment for those “particularly distinguished” drug distributors to 25 years and make jail conditions even tougher: “Let’s set such a regime in these prisons so that they pray for death,” Lukashenko said. Other participants of the meeting suggested to introduce responsibility for being in state of drugs intoxication in public, to reduce the minimum age of criminal responsibility for those accused in manufacturing of banned substances, to create a database of drug users, as well as the other measures. Three weeks later, on December 28, Lukashenko signed the now famous decree No. 6 “On emergency measures for countering the illegal trafficking of drugs” (in Belarus the president’s decrees have the force of a law). Starting from 2015, the procedure for classification of new psychoactive substances as drugs is considerably simplified, criminal responsibility for manufacturing and sale of drugs is applicable from the age of fourteen, the maximum terms of imprisonment for convicts under article 328 of the criminal code increased: from 8 to 15 years for a sale to a teenager, from 15 to 20 years for sales operated by an organized group, from 8 to 20 years for manufacturing in a laboratory. In March 2015 an electronic database of drug users was created, and the Ministry of Health is responsible for its maintenance. A witch hunt ha begun. [...]
There is no division between “light” and “hard” drugs in Belarus. It also does not matter whether 0.1 grams of marijuana or a kilogram of synthetic drugs were found on a defendant. If the judge finds the charges in the trafficking as true, the = accused can be put in jail for at least 5 years. Often in court statements one can read phrases like “drugs were transferred to an unidentified person at an unidentified site”. Judges routinely consider these grounds sufficient to deprive liberty. Once the decree which has already been mentioned, entered into force, many opportunities for acquittal were abolished, and convicts began to be placed in the specially allocated colonies – a third special prison was created recently as the other two have been overloaded. Last month, the president, a big ice hockey fan, was photographed with an ice hockey stick made by prisoners. It was not specified in which colony sports equipment is produced exactly, although there are also woodworking, sewing and other workshops in prisons across the country. However, there is not a sufficient number of workplaces and pay is extremely low; usually people get around one euro cent per work day. Moreover, for several years now, visual segregation has been practiced: patches on prison clothes of those convicted for drugs are of green color.
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