Jail time for “discrediting” Belarus
BBC: Belarus tightens up protest laws
The law will make it a criminal offence to “discredit” the Belarusian state both within Belarus and abroad - with a three year jail term for offenders.
So it happened today. The puppet parliament had no problem at all voting for Lukashenka’s amendments, which are almost exact replica’s of the Stalin’s articles from the Soviet constitution. Only four MP’s from our puppet “palata” had enough guts to vote “No!”.
The reactions from all European politicians are not surprising. Vice-chairman of the Polish parliament called it “a declaration of war” on all free media. Lithuanian MP’s called it a barbaric, “totally uncivilized” law. A former Polish ambassador said that “now it can be said openly that Belarus is 100% totalitarian state.” Etc. etc. etc.
December 2nd, 2005 at 8:23 pm
And another one:
Belarusian Parliament Approves Law To Muzzle Dissent
Parliament in Belarus has overwhelmingly approved a controversial bill aimed at muzzling dissent against the regime of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Deputies in the Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, voted 97 to four to back amendments to the Criminal Code that provide tough penalties for anyone convicted of inciting demonstrations or spreading information deemed to discredit Belarus.
Under the new law, public appeals for the overthrow of the government or “the forcible change of the constitutional system” would be punishable with prison terms of up to three years.
Spreading of “false” information about the situation in Belarus would be punishable by up to two years in prison. Critics of the law say it is aimed to prevent upheavals like Ukraine’s Orange revolution one year ago.
Lukashenka submitted the bill to parliament on 23 November for “urgent” consideration. Two days later, deputies passed it in a first reading.
December 3rd, 2005 at 7:08 am
Bah :( I knew this would happen. I’m very worried as of what will happen to many people such as known opposition members. The police and KGB have just been given cart blance to do whatever they like, and it to be legal as well. I still very much hope that this nightmare ends soon, and all these ridiculous laws will all be annulled.
December 3rd, 2005 at 4:01 pm
This makes the crap the government is pulling in Australia seem minor.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:49 am
:))
August 12th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!