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Crime rate in Belarus does not pose any threat to national security, interior minister says

The crime rate in Belarus does not pose any threat to national security and all criminal trends in Belarusian society are controlled by law-enforcement agencies, Interior Minister Ihar Shunevich said Monday in Minsk, speaking at a selected group of journalists.

According to Mr. Shunevich, corruption and other economic crimes are primarily committed by "white-collar workers," whose offenses are well-thought-out and committed through the use of modern technologies, which increases their latency.

Mr. Shunevich emphasized the need to better equip the country's economic crime police units and staff them with high-skilled personnel. Only one in four staff members of such units studied economics at higher education institutions, he noted.

"Unfortunately, economic crime police units are not prestigious among graduates of higher education institutions with majors in economics and are not a place where they would like to go to show their worth," Mr. Shunevich said.

However, he noted that officers of such units had recently solved some high-profile crimes and carried out many arrests of crime bosses.

A total of 93 corruption crimes were disclosed in Belarus’ agricultural sector in the first half of 2013, with more than half of them being cases of embezzlement committed through abuse of power, Mr. Shunevich said. //BelaPAN