Five people were arrested and accused of disobeying the police orders. The former political prisoner Aliaksandr Frantskevich got the maximum sentence. He was sentenced to 12 days of imprisonment, so he will have to celebrate New Year in jail. Some unknown men in civilian clothes with no identification nametag came to Aliaksandr, when they saw that the activist films the police officers on the camera of his cell phone.
Minsk resident Dzmitry Pryharau appealed for help to the human rights defenders, saying that on 20 December at the Independence Avenue policemen from the Central District office of internal affairs took his BMW in an absolutely illegal manner – without any explanations and drafting the necessary documents.
Dzmitry Pryharau participated in the “Stop Tax” protest and was driving along Minsk’s Independence Avenue with a flyer “No More Rip-off!” pasted on his car. He was listening to Lyapis Trubetskoy’s “Not To Be Cattle!” at that moment.
Firstly the car was stopped by traffic police and the driver was fined for honking: “I was immediately fined for using a honk, i.e. they had been already reported about this on the radio. Nobody cared about the question how my honk was identified in a continuous buzz. A traffic policeman called someone in front of me and specified the number of the article for the buzzer and then said with a smile that he is going to fine someone for beeping for the first time.”
Dzmitry notes that none of the two police officers who were with him in the traffic police car gave their names or shown any documents. After the fine was issued, he was asked to open the hood of his car.
“I asked to explain the purpose. They told me they need to check the vehicle identification number. With absolute certainty that everything is ok (my car is on record, has repeatedly passed inspection and verification of all numbers, and there were no problems), I raised the hood. He really did not even look there and said that the car was going to be sent to a parking lot of Central district police station. He said the car identification number was rigged. I showed him factory’s details, trying to convince him that it just cannot be true. After hearing all my arguments, he said that he was not an expert and only experts would deal with this case. By that time the tow truck arrived. This means they deliberately wanted to take away my car, but I said that I would drive.”
On the way to the police station Dzmitry Pryharau once again asked the policeman to show his ID. However, his request was not answered. The young man said that then there appeared a criminologist to inspect the vehicle, who, according to his own words, had no right to be an expert. Still, he looked at the BMW and took a few photos. But the car was not returned to the owner.
“I was not given a copy of any record of detention, nor a copy of the inspection. They only told me to come on Monday without telling where I should come and whom I should contact.
On December 23 Dzmitry Pryharau came to Central district police station just to be redirected from office to office for nearly an hour.
“At the end, I went to the chief of the Criminal Investigation and said that I would like to know what is happening. I asked when the the expertise is going to take place, and also stated that I want it to be held in my presence. I wanted to know for how long they are going to hold my car, explaining that I have a sick grandmother, who I need to take to the hospital and so on. The only answer I got was that I would not have had these problems, if I had stayed at home.
Without any explanation the officer of the Central police station told Pryharau that his car would be held there for a month. On December 24 the young man sent a complaint against the policemen to head of the Department of Internal Affairs of Minsk’s Central district.
The drivers are protesting against the new state tax for venicles to be introduced in 2014. Dzmitry explained that he participated in the protests because the new law on the tax is not well-designed: “There is a huge number of other people to think about.For instance, pensioners. A lot of them are driving their cars only a few times a year to come the countryside. I don’t understand, why do they have to pay that kind of money. At the same time taxi drivers drive everyday and earns money by doing it. Where is the justice? Our pensions are not that big so the retirees cou toldn’t afford pay so much money for some unknown reason. And indeed there are many people who use the car only in case of urgent need, but need to pay the same amount of money. The law is obviously incomplete. Also it is important to bear in mind that the fuel price increases very often.”
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