The Helsinki Committee's program of trial observation has revealed a pattern by which judges routinely make decisions only after receiving telephone calls with instructions. The Administrative Code has been willfully misinterpreted to keep arrested persons isolated and without access to legal counsel. The Helsinki Committee has observed numerous trials in which judges have not allowed defense lawyers and not even testimony by defense witnesses. In some cases accused persons are not even present at their own trials, and some trials occur in the police detentions and without lawyers or witnesses or any other elements of due process. The government does whatever it wants.
Power controls the law.
Legal defense can now only be undertaken as a member of a state apparatus, indeed, as officials subordinate to the Executive branch and serving the interest of the state. These measures make it virtually impossible for individuals to be assisted and represented in court in cases where they are in conflict with the authorities, affecting particularly the victims of government oppression, such as demonstrators at rallies, representatives of trade unions and other opponents. Combined with the frequent abuses by judges, the decree seems to be a further step toward depriving the citizens of their right to a fair trial. The Decree obviously contravenes major international human rights conventions to which Belarus is a party. It violates the commitments made in Par.