A court in Homiel has ordered five guarantors of a defendant who fled from court and left the country to pay fines. Each of them must pay 100 basic units, with the total amount exceeding 20,000 rubles.
As the Prosecutor General’s Office reported, during the preliminary investigation, the defendant was placed under a measure of restraint in the form of a personal guarantee. Five fellow residents of his hometown guaranteed his proper conduct and timely appearance before investigators and the court.
In March 2026, the defendant failed to appear at a court hearing. Internal Affairs officers later established that he had left Belarus and begun living in another country. The court placed the man on a wanted list and changed his measure of restraint to detention. The guarantors told the court that they had monitored the defendant during in-person meetings and by phone and had not expected him to decide to flee. However, this did not exempt them from liability.
Under Belarus’s Code of Criminal Procedure, if a defendant takes actions that the guarantors were supposed to prevent, each guarantor may be fined between 100 and 500 basic units.
In August, the court granted a motion by the deputy prosecutor of Homiel Region and ordered each guarantor to pay 100 basic units. The total amount exceeded 20,000 rubles.
The court ruling has not yet entered into force and may be appealed or challenged.
