Interior ministry: 49,000 brought to justice for minor domestic violence offenses in 2022

April 3, BPN. Every third murder and every fourth serious bodily injury in Belarus are still committed by the hands of the victims’ relatives, a high-standing interior ministry official, Siarhiej Krasucki, told a press conference on April 3.

“Every year, internal affairs bodies alone register about 80,000 domestic violence reports. At the same time, we realize that these are not all the incidents that take place in our homes, families, between loved ones,” Krasucki said.

According to Krasucki, over 49,000 citizens were brought to justice under the Administrative Offences Code in 2022.

The interior ministry has witnessed a decrease in these crimes for a long time, the official said. In Q1, 2023 the number of murders in this category dropped by 10 percent; of serious bodily injuries, “by almost a third.”

Some 21,000 people are on the watch list. In January-February, police intervened in over 5,000 incidents, removing perpetrators from their homes in most cases.

On March 21, Alaksandr Łukašenka demanded that security forces use the most cruel methods to root out violence against women and children from Belarusian society.

He said the fight against this evil should become as serious as the fight against terrorism.

On March 7, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Justice Valer Kavalkoŭ told reporters that domestic violence wasn’t such an acute issue as to discuss a dedicated bill.

According to the interior ministry, 70,000 domestic violence incidents were registered in Belarus in the first 11 months of 2022. Law enforcers treated 15,000 incidents as minor offenses, and 2,500 incidents as criminal offenses.

The republic doesn’t have a law on combating domestic violence. Such piece of legislation was drafted several times. In October 2018, Alaksandr Łukašenka sharply criticized it, calling the bill a stupidity imported from the West.