Upper house passes bill to strip émigrés of citizenship

December 21, BPN. The Council of the Republic, the upper house of the National Assembly, has approved a bill “On Citizenship of the Republic of Belarus,” its press service reported.

It would introduce new grounds for annulling citizenship such as “a court sentence that has come into legal force, confirming that a person participates in extremist activities or causes serious harm to Belarus’ interests, when that person is outside Belarus,” the Belarusian parliament said last week.

This way, democratic leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja, former cabinet minister Pavieł Łatuška and other prominent democratic figures, whom the authorities deem extremist and prosecute in absentia, may be left without passports.

Article 10 of the Constitution says that no-one can be stripped of citizenship or of the right to change it, adding that termination of citizenship shall be carried out in line with law.