MINSK. Oct 15 (Interfax) - Participants in extremist formations in Belarus will be prosecuted depending on the role of each participant, the Belarusian Interior Ministry said on Telegram, commenting on the resolution of the Belarussian government of October 12 on measures to counter extremism and rehabilitate Nazism.
"The document outlines procedures for recognizing groups of citizens engaged in extremist activities, including through using messengers and social networks, as extremist formations. One should distinguish between this amendment and the existing procedure for recognizing information products as extremist materials. In the latter case, a court ruling is needed (administrative liability is envisaged), and recognition of groups of citizens as extremist formations requires a decision of the Interior Ministry or the State Security Committee (criminal liability occurs)," the Belarusian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The de-anonymization of the administrators and the most active subscribers of Belarusian extremist Telegram channels and chats is practically over, it said.
"All reports inducing extremist activities posted on messengers and social networks, as well as other actions by Internet users to create protest activity, continue to be documented. Prosecution of extremist formations participants will be targeted depending on the role of each participant based on the collected evidence," the statement said.
Groups of citizens who have united using various methods, including on the Internet, "for the purpose of creating extremist materials, their popularization and dissemination, as well as other activities aimed at damaging our state's national security" will be identified as extremist formations, head of the Belarusian Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Countering Organized Crime and Corruption Vyacheslav Orlovsky said.
The founders, organizers and participants of extremist formations will be charged with calls for actions damaging Belarusian national security, he said.
"We have fully documented all messages inducing extremist activities posted in messengers and on social networks, as well as other actions by Internet users to create protest activity. The taken measures will make it possible to give attention to every subscriber of extremist Telegram channels and chats and give a legal evaluation to them," Orlovsky said.
"We call on citizens not to trust fakes and other propaganda of anti-state information sources stating that activities to support extremist resources will go unpunished and that millions of people will allegedly prosecuted. In fact, extremist websites do not have millions of subscribers as they say, but much fewer. And we know all people who form protest activity with their posts," he said.