OREANDA-NEWS. June 07, 2011. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko instructed to improve the justice system and eliminate red tape in the courts. The head of state gave the relevant instructions during a meeting to discuss the improvement of the operation of general jurisdiction courts on 3 June.

The Belarusian leader asked the participants of the meeting to focus their attention on the concrete areas in the near future. First of all, there is a need to improve the system of justice and secure full elimination of red tape in the activity of courts.

“We must not be self-complacent. There is still too much formalism in the work of the courts. Principles and guarantees of fair justice have not been implemented yet. I believe it is inadmissible to give a person even a formal ground to complain about inaccessibility to justice, red tape, rudeness from judges and court workers,” Alexander Lukashenko stated.

“I would like to reiterate that the primary task of the court is to settle conflicts, not create them. It is high time that the courts learnt to work under present-day conditions. They should be mobile and open to people. They should learn to cooperate with the media,” the head of state noted.

According to him, a set of measures is needed to secure a proper technical provision of the court activity. “Law enforcement officers should be provided with access to all necessary for the case databanks of the Interior Ministry (including the road police), organizations of state registration of immovable property, others,” the President said.

Alexander Lukashenko stressed that the quality of justice should be cardinally improved, and the assumption of innocence principle should be rigorously observed.

As regards the work of judges here, the head of state said: “Stop being afraid to give an impartial assessment of the violations and mistakes made during the preliminary investigation. You have every authority for it.”

“I believe that the authoritative judicial power should be able to acknowledge and correct its mistakes in time in order not to raise reasonable doubts from people,” the President stressed.