President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko demanded the Public Prosecutor’s Office to redouble anti-corruption efforts and strengthen control over the decision-making activities of the state agencies and organisations. The President also demanded to strengthen control over implementation of the Anti-Corruption Law of the Republic of Belarus.

On April 19 the head of state met with Prosecutor General Piotr Miklashevich to receive his report, BelTA learnt in the presidential press service. The President was informed about the anti-corruption and anti-crime efforts of the law enforcement bodies in Q1, 2007.

The Prosecutor General noted that due to joint actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, law enforcement bodies and other state agencies the corruption level has been cut. This can be attributed to close coordination between the law enforcement bodies as well as to a new anti-corruption bill which came into force in January this year. For the three months 2007, some 238 cases of bribery, 195 cases of embezzlement, 347 crimes connected with abuse of power were revealed. On the whole, the number of corruption-related crimes fell by 24.4% as against Q1, 2006.

A total of 41,458 crimes were registered in the country in Q1, 2007. This is 10.3% down from the same period last year. The decrease in the crime rate came due to a fall in the number of grave crimes (down by 25.8%), lesser crimes (8% down) and the crimes which do not present a big threat to the society (14.8% down). There is a downward trend in the number of premeditated murders, robberies, disorderly conduct and juvenile delinquency.

The President stressed that the protection of citizens against criminal offences is one of the main tasks of the state and required that the procuracy bodies should be more efficient in coordinating the activity of law-enforcing bodies in the fight against crime, in taking effective and timely measures in detecting crimes and bringing the guilty to account.

The Prosecutor General also informed the President about the course of preliminary investigations of the criminal cases and trials of the criminal cases which are under control of the head of state.