Officials in Belarus are pushing for a law requiring citizens to supply the state with DNA samples, but RFE/RL’s Belarus Service has learned that authorities in the tightly controlled country have already been quietly compiling a DNA database of people viewed with suspicion by the state.
Mikalay, a journalist with an independent Belarusian media outlet operating outside the country -- whose real name is being withheld for security reasons -- said DNA samples were taken from his parents back home two years ago. After what he described as a “politically motivated” criminal case was opened against him in absentia, police first summoned his mother to provide a DNA sample, then drove to her rural residence.
“Investigative Committee officers came to her village and took a saliva sample on the spot, Mikalay said. “They also said something along the lines of: ‘If something happens to your son, this will make it easier to identify him.’”
'Outside Of Any Legal Framework'
Aleh Aheyeu, a lawyer and deputy chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, says similar stories are now widespread.
“DNA samples are being collected from political prisoners and from the relatives of people who have left Belarus,” Aheyeu said, adding that samples are being taken “outside of any legal framework.”
There are numerous cases "in which DNA samples are extracted from people through deception, lies, or threats for databases that are essentially illegal.”
The proposed law “is an attempt to legalize a practice that already exists,” he said.
File photo of the entrance to a Belarusian police facility.
The Belarusian State Forensic Medical Examination Committee has initiated a proposal for a law that would mandate DNA samples for all Belarusians, committee chairman Alyaksey Volkau said in an interview published on August 20.
“We’re not saying that we should simply collect DNA samples from everyone in the country all at once,” he said. “First, we believe this work should take place over a certain period: one, two, three or four years, perhaps, depending on the categories involved. Some categories will be given priority, while for others we may set a later deadline."
Volkau suggested plans for legislation were still in their early stages but said "we are working actively on this and are seeing support from our colleagues in law enforcement and other state organs" in the authoritarian country.
DNA is a unique biological fingerprint found in almost every cell in the human body. DNA samples are usually taken through saliva.
No Universal Requirement In West
Some Western countries have laws that give police the authority to take DNA from people convicted of a serious crime. None has a universal requirement for citizens to provide samples.
Aheyeu said it remains unclear what the DNA samples would be used for by the authorities in Belarus, where Aleksandr Lukashenko has been in power since 1994.
He has persistently suppressed dissent, and the state's clampdown tightened with a violent response to massive protests that erupted after he was declared the victor of a 2020 presidential election many citizens say was stolen. Many government opponents, journalists, and others have been forced from the country or fled.
“When there is no legal regulation, they alone decide how this data will be used,” he said. “Other countries have this kind of practice, but they also have legal regulation and accountable agencies. In Belarus, the security forces can use the data however they like.”
According to Uladzimer Zhyhar, a representative of BelPol, an association of former members of the Belarusian security services, DNA samples were being collected from some people in Belarus even before the protests that broke out following the 2020 election. The practice had solved some genuine crimes, he said.
“I was personally present when one such crime was solved. It was a 20-year-old murder case. A cigarette butt had been preserved in the case files. It was sent for further analysis, the person connected with it was identified, and the murder was ultimately solved,” Zhyhar said.
He doubts that a nationwide DNA database, if one is established in Belarus, would be useful for political persecution.
“Politically motivated cases often don’t require any evidence, since everything is fabricated out of thin air. Complicated tools such as a DNA database are therefore just unnecessary,” Zhyhar said.
If a law establishing a comprehensive DNA database of Belarusian citizens is adopted, it will be a continuation of a process that began when the Law on Fingerprint Registration came into force in 2004. That law ultimately required almost all adult male Belarusian citizens to submit their fingerprints.
The campaign of compulsory fingerprint collection began in Belarus in 2008, following an explosion on July 4 of that year at an outdoor concert celebrating Belarusian Independence Day.