On 19 December 2010, Belarus held presidential elections, which were accompanied by numerous violations of national electoral legislation and did not meet international standards.In the evening thousands of people gathered for a peaceful demonstration against the elections falsification. The demonstration was brutally dispersed, and more than 700 people, including presidential candidates, were beaten up, arrested and fined. That day started an unprecedented wave of politically motivated repression in Belarus, which was revealed in massive searches and seizures of equipment, prosecutions and long prison terms for those, who dared to protest.
2 years after that events Legal Transformation Center collected the names of the judges and the policemen of “Ploshcha”, and some details of administrative arrests and trials in an extensive research.
Center’s publications named “Administrative detentions and trials. Analysis of law enforcement” and “Afterword … Ploshcha-2010 in Belarusian human rights defenders’ eyes “- are issued on the same CD. It contains 350 hours of audio-records of all 14 criminal trials. In addition, it has thousands of documents on administrative cases.
“We interviewed 350 of the 780 people, who were detained after the Ploshcha,” – says Alena Tankachova, Head of the Center. – We completely transcribed the taped recordings of all the trials. We cited all the parties’ “disputes” word by word.”
“Representatives of our justice system get very nervous when any information about their illegal activities become public, – says Maryna Adamovich, the wife of Mikalai Statkevich, political prisoner and former presidential candidate. She was also involved in the preparation of the publication: “My contribution is minor. I’ve been collecting, searching and technical processing of information. It is a living testimony of the history made on very high methodological level. I am sure that sooner or later all of these cases are reviewed, and those people will be rehabilitated. And the foundation for this is ready.”
Alena Tankachova noted numerous cases of massive violations of legislation during the investigation and court proceedings on Ploshcha events. The penetration of the official media operative-investigative data is one of them. Human rights defenders also say about the pressure on lawyers who were the only way to learn about the physical and psychological state of the accused at the time of those events.
Alena Tankachova: “We are convinced that the circumstances of events of 19 December and the main question – fact of “mass riots” at Ploshcha, were not investigated by any criminal court. Without this one could be sued. And it has not been done so far.”
This fact will be the reason to review the cases of political prisoners in future, said Alena Tankachova:
“Mikalai Statkevich, Zmitser Dashkevich and Eduard Lobau are still imprisoned illegally… Paval Seviarynets is sentenced to forced labour. This is the result of the politicization of the judiciary system, which was serving the interests of the state, not to administering justice after 19 December.”
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