The Pervamaisky District Court of Vitsyebsk has sentenced two citizens of Belarus and two foreign nationals for organizing and assisting illegal migration (Article 371-1 of the Criminal Code).
According to the case materials, the defendants “ensured the illegal entry and transit through the territory of Belarus, as well as the departure from the country of 21 citizens from Central Asia and the North Caucasus.” At the same time, they knew that foreigners who had been denied entry to Belarus could not travel to Russia, and vice versa.
“In the developed plan of illegal migration, they provided a scheme according to which, during border control, the fact of a ban on entry to Belarus and Russia was concealed from border service officers by using substituted passport data,” the Vitsyebsk Region Prosecutor’s Office reported.
Members of the group met the foreigners at Minsk airport and transported them by car, including vehicles disguised as taxis, to Polatsk. There they were transferred to a minibus and a passenger car and taken to the border with Russia.
On May 22, one of the defendants was detained near the village of Ukleenka in the Rassany District. The others, who were transporting five foreign nationals, were detained in the Lahoysk District and near Lepel.
Investigators seized 500,000 Russian rubles (18,700 Belarusian rubles) from the defendants.
None of them admitted guilt during the trial.
One defendant was sentenced to 2.5 years of restricted freedom served at home. Another received two years in a general-regime penal colony. The remaining two were sentenced to three and four years in a strict-regime penal colony and fined 100 base units (4,500 rubles).