Gerhard Folke, a Russian-born citizen of Germany whose light plane made an unauthorized landing in Brest, Belarus, on April 1, has been released from custody, promising to report for further questioning if summoned, Valery Orsik, a member of the investigative team, has told BelaPAN.
Air controllers in Brest denied Mr. Folke permission to land on the ground that the local airport was under repairs. He landed anyway, sending out distress signals. He is now charged with violating international flight rules, which entails a fine or up to six months in jail under Belarus' Criminal Code.
It is likely to take the Belarusian Transport Prosecutor's Office up to two months to investigate the case, Mr. Orsik said. According to him, the German insists on his innocence and has rejected a Belarusian lawyer. The officer confirmed that Mr. Folke did encounter a generator failure over eastern Poland, which disabled his navigation and radio equipment. The pilot had been in Brest before and managed to bring his plane in using a compass.
The German plans to leave Brest later this week as soon as his generators are repaired, Mr. Orsik said.
According to the Brest branch of Belarus' Committee for State Security (KGB) as much as 288,156 kilograms of industrial wastes falsely marked as "organic solvent" have been imported to Belarus by a Brest-based company.
The activity was in progress from August 1998 to September 1999 under contracts with German and Swiss companies, the KGB branch's press office told BelaPAN. The Germans reportedly mixed alcohol with ammonia and exported it as organic solvent. The mixture was then converted back into alcohol, supposedly in Poland. The residues went to Belarus for final disposal.
The Brest company, called Kvarta Plus, knew what they were importing but cannot be charged because Belarus' Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection has failed to identify the liquid as industrial wastes for lack of proper facilities.
Authorities in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave banned imports of the same substance as hazardous back in May 1998, and that was when Kvarta Plus came in, the KGB said. A total of 111 metric tons of the stuff reportedly remains in storages in Minsk and the Brest region. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection has recommended taking it out of Belarus.
The Pravovaya Initsiativa (Legal Initiative) association held an international seminar on the abolition of the death penalty in Brest on July 5 to encourage the discussion of the issue in society.
Speakers at the seminar included lawyers, human rights defenders, judges, representatives of the Penal Committee of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Council of Europe experts.
Participants discussed reports on the application of the death penalty in Belarus, the abolition of capital punishment in Georgia and Ukraine, and problems that correctional systems face after the abolition. "Whatever crimes are discussed, the issue of the death penalty outstretched the borders of criminal legislation long ago and more and more people come to the realization that this is a human rights issue," said Valery Filipov,
coordinator of Legal Initiative programs. Tatiana Termacic, an official of the Council of Europe Human Rights Directorate, pointed out that Belarus is one of the last countries in Europe that still use the death
penalty. Belarus is not a member of the Council of Europe, but it
should be prepared to abolish capital punishment if it decides to join it in the future, she said.
7 April 2001