Belarus Accused Of Abusing Legal Treaty In Tax Probe

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

10 August 2011

The Lithuanian government has criticized an alleged abuse of the Multilateral Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) by Belarus, after it emerged that Belarusian officials had used the agreement to gain confidential data specifically on human rights protestors, including prominent campaigner, Ales Byalyatski, now charged with tax evasion.

It is alleged the authorities gained the data to bring tax evasion charges against anti-government supporters with accounts in Lithuania.

Lithuania's Justice Ministry has confirmed that it processed the request, as it does with many hundred per year from Belarus, under the terms of the MLAT, which provides nations with a mechanism to share confidential data, including tax data, necessary to back up legal proceedings. However, the treaty has strict conditions on its use, and Lithuanian authorities have confirmed that it has suspended further Belarusian requests.

“It is the stance of the justice ministry of Lithuania and the Lithuanian government that it is unacceptable to use the legal assistance agreement for non-legal political purposes,” Tomas Vaitkevicius, Lithuania’s vice minister of justice told BelePAN. “Until this case, we had been satisfied with cooperation with Belarus in legal matters,” he said.

This is not the first instance of alleged human rights abuses by the current government, and the European Commission has denounced the Belarusian government's actions. Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, stated:

"The High Representative expresses her concern over reports that the authorities in Belarus detained Mr Ales Bialiatski, a prominent human rights defender who is chairman of the non-governmental organization Viasna and Vice President of the International Human Rights Federation, and that Mr Bialiatski's private residence was searched, with the participation of the state security services."

"The High Representative calls on the authorities in Minsk to clarify as a matter of urgency the reasons for the reported detention of Bialiatski. The High Representative reiterates her strong regret at repeated acts of intimidation and harassment of peaceful human rights defenders in Belarus, and at the continued refusal to grant legal status to independent human rights organizations in the country."

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