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Belarus mission to UN Office accuses UN Office in Belarus employees of misusing funds

According to the statement, two employees of the UN Office in Belarus developed and implemented an illegal scheme to cover the services of lawyers to Belarusian citizens who participated in illegal protests in 2020

MINSK, October 12./TASS/. Several employees of the UN Office in Belarus helped to carry out a financial fraud with the UN funds intended for legal aid to persons with disabilities and victims of domestic violence, the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Belarus to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva wrote on its website on Tuesday.

"In August 2020, after externally incited riots took place in Belarus following the announcement of the election campaign results, on the initiative and with further support of the UN official, two employees of the UN Office in Belarus, with full awareness of the illegality of their actions, developed and implemented an illegal scheme to cover the services of lawyers to Belarusian citizens who were neither persons with disabilities nor victims of domestic violence," the report said.

"These citizens participated in illegal protests aimed at undermining statehood and overthrowing the current government. As a result, lawyers were illegally financed to service 23 citizens," the statement added.

"The Senior Human Rights Adviser appointed by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in the Republic of Belarus initiated the misuse of OHCHR funds that were intended to provide legal assistance to persons with disabilities or victims of domestic violence," it went on to say.

The scheme also involved Belarusian nationals - Sergey Drozdovsky, director of the Belarusian NGO ‘Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ and the lawyer of this organization.

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"Thus, the Belarusian citizens S.Drozdovsky and the lawyer of the institution headed by him, at suggestion and with participation of several employees of the UN Office in Belarus, carried out a financial fraud with the UN funds allocated to provide assistance to people with disabilities and victims of domestic violence, which constitutes a criminal offense," the statement said.

"Deciding to earn career points on the ‘Belarusian theme’, some UN employees distort the facts and mislead the international community, likely hoping that the unpleasant and unacceptable facts defaming the UN will not come out," it stressed.

"At the same time, the facts speak for themselves: an international UN official, who served as a senior human rights adviser at the UN Office in Belarus, expressed political bias, provoked a violation of national legislation by Belarus citizens, thereby grossly violated the principles of conduct of UN personnel which are enshrined in the UN Staff Regulations," the mission said.

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