The UN Human Rights Committee recorded infringement of civil rights of minor convicted dweller of Homel in the course of proceedings.
As told by human rights activist Raman Kislyak, Hanna Kareba, mother of the convicted, filed an individual complaint to the Committee on December 10, 2004. Her 17-year-old son Dmitry was detained on September 17, 2001, on suspicion of murder of a man, whose body with numerous stab wounds was found in the yard of secondary school #2 on May 24, 2010, "Belorusskie Novosti" informs.
On April 5, 2002, the judicial board for criminal cases of the Homel Region Court found Dmitry guilty of committing an especially cruel murder and repeated attempted theft and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
Mother of the convicted wrote in the complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee that her son had been threatened, humiliated and beaten by police officers who wanted him to admit the murder. He succumbed to pressure and gave the confession, which he rejected later.
Kareba noted in the complaint that her minor son had been kept in a cell with adults in the temporary detention facility for 11 days. Moreover, he was interrogated without a lawyer, a legal representative or a social care teacher; during the trial, the young man wasn't allowed to put questions to one of the main witnesses for prosecution, whose personality kept in secret from the trial participants.
"The Committee admitted the following violations in relation to Dmitry: the prohibition on torture and cruel treatment; the presumption of innocence; the right of a minor to be kept apart from adults in a cell; the right to question witnesses who give evidence against him; and the right not to give evidence against himself," Kislyak said. According to him, it's rather rare when the Committee agrees to consider violation of children's rights.
Source: Charter'97 :: News from Belarus
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