Dear Mr. Lukashenko,

The International League for Human Rights, an international, non-governmental human rights organization with consultative status at the United Nations, is writing to express concern over continued harassment of Vera Stremkovskaya, an independent lawyer and human rights advocate in Minsk.

At the end of January, Mr. Gambolevsky, the deputy chairman of the Minsk Collegium of Lawyers, together with Mr. Kartovitsky, the head of the Pervomaisky district legal consultation bureau, conducted a check on the activities of Ms. Stremkovskaya. Without notifying Stremkovsky nor seeking the approval of her clients, Kartovitsky and Gambolevsky visited various courts and demanded information about the cases in which Stremkovskaya has taken part as a lawyer. They also interrogated some of her clients right in their offices regarding the format of payment for her legal services. The clients were obviously dismayed and some have sought legal services elsewhere. As a result of this unlawful search and interrogation, which violates legal ethic codes, Gambolevsky managed to find an order to initiate a civil case, signed by Stremkovskaya before she had received money from the client. Despite her explanation that the case has been going on for a long time and that the client regularly pays money into the Collegium's account, Gambolevsky filed a complaint and requested that she face disciplinary action.

On February 19, at the annual conference of advocates, Mr. Mitrofanov, the chairman of the Minsk Collegium of Advocates, tried to discredit Stremkovskaya, by claiming that she has violated the Collegium's charter and code of conduct. This claim was supported by Mr. Andreichik, the chairman of the Republican Collegium of Advocates, who further suggested that disciplinary action should be taken against Stremkovskaya.

In yet another recent instance involving a case which has been lingering for nearly a year, Stremkovskaya may still face criminal charges for insulting Mr. Smolentsev, the prosecutor in the case against Vasily Starovoitov, whom Stremkovskaya defended last year. The charges were filed in April 1999 after Ms. Stremkovskaya asked in court about the whereabouts of forty bottles of cognac which were confiscated from Starovoitov's home as evidence and then went missing. Smolentsev has argued that by asking this question Stremkovskaya implied that he had taken the cognac for his own consumption. The case was supposed to have been closed, although Stremkovskaya found out that, in early March, Smolenstev submitted a petition requesting that the case be re-opened.

The League believes that these actions taken against Stremkovskaya are in retaliation for her legal defense of opposition figures and her public advocacy of human rights. Stremkovskaya remains one of the few lawyers in Belarus able and willing to risk defending those involved in politically motivated cases. If she is disbarred and prevented from further practicing law, this would be a blow to Belarus' justice system, which already suffers from excessive subordination to the executive branch. The League urges you to cease all harassment of Stremkovskaya and ensure that she is able to freely practice her profession without retaliation against her and her clients.

Sincerely,

Catherine Fitzpatrick
Executive Director