The 25 th of October five persons were detained for participation in the demonstration against the falsification of the Parliamentary election and the referendum in Kastrychnitskaya Square. (26-10-04)
According to VIASNA´s press release judges of Minsk Tsentralny Borough Court tried the activists in the building of Minsk Tsentralny Borough Board of Internal Affairs in Arlowskaya Street, 24. The results of the court decisions:
Nasta Azarka – 15 days of jail
Uladzimir Behlik – 5 days
Viachaslaw Siwchyk – 15 days
Ales Vasilewski – 10 days
Siarhey Vysotski – 3 days
Press release from VIASNA the 22th of October reads that special police forces tortured participants of protests actions of 18-19 October. According to the testimony of one of the detainees, Yaraslaw Navumenka, who participated in the protest action of 19 October, activists were “thrown down on the floor and beaten” in the police busses. The judge of Minsk Leninski Court Tserashkova paid no attention to the fact of torture and sentenced him to 3 days of arrest.
Valiantsin Stefanovich, the lawyer of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, who attended the trials as the representative of the detainees, emphasizes that the judges refused to call witnesses of the defendants.
— We will register the facts of tortures and try to help people in writing complaints to prosecutor’s offices. We will demand check-ups of these facts, identification of the persons who dealt with it and bringing of criminal cases against them. Besides, the names of these persons will be given wide publicity and transferred to the UN Committee “Against Tortures”, he says.
On the 20th of October, according to VIASNA, the Minsk Leninski Borough Court found persons guilty even if they refues to have taken part in the protests and were detained occasionally. The judges grounded their decisions on written documents and not oral testimonies of the police. Valiantsin Stefanovich said the procedures violate the right to testiify witnesses.
