13 December, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. A nurse from Vitebsk was so afraid of being reprimanded for being late that she decided to stage a robbery. The details of the case were reported to a BELTA correspondent by Olga Yanush, assistant prosecutor of the Oktyabrsky District of Vitebsk. The 27-year-old woman faced punishment not only for being late but also for appearing at work intoxicated. Realising she might lose her job, the nurse called the duty officer and reported that she had been attacked in the entrance of her apartment building. An unknown assailant allegedly tried to snatch her handbag and inflicted five cuts on her. Police officers arrived at the scene, began an investigation, and, as required by law, notified the "victim" of her liability for giving false testimony. The nurse signed the warning and began to give her statement. The investigation lasted about two weeks, and investigators managed to prove that an hour before the call, the supposed victim had "artificially created evidence of guilt and inflicted five cuts on herself with a paper-cutting knife". The court agreed with the investigation's findings, found the nurse guilty under Part 2 of Article 400 of the Criminal Code of Belarus "Knowingly false denunciation of the commission of a grave or especially grave crime" and sentenced her to 6 months of imprisonment with a one-year probationary period. The sentence has entered into legal force. As Olga Yanush noted, the law provides for the possibility of recovering funds spent on the investigation of a non-existent offense for a knowingly false denunciation: investigators' salaries, transport costs, etc., however, there has been no such practice yet, as the number of such crimes is insignificant. -0-

BELTA