On 22 January Minsk activists came to Taras Shevchenko monument, located near the Embassy of Ukraine and laid flowers, lit candles and unfurled a large portrait of Mikhail Zhyzneuski – a Belarusians who died in Ukraine exactly one year ago on the Grushevskogo street in Kiev. After the action, they were detained by police and taken to the police station. According to human rights defenders, physical force was used towards some of the detainees. After midnight, four activists were released.
Tsentralny District Court of Minsk found the participants of the action in the memory of Heavenly Hundred heroes (the name for killed Euromaidan protesters January-February 2014), held in Minsk on the evening of 22 January guilty of violating the order of organizing and holding mass events (Art. 23.34 of the Administrative Code).
Maksim Viniarski and Ales Makayeu were punished with administrative arrest for 15 days, and Yauhien Batura and Mikalai Kolas – for 10 days, Volha Mikalaychyk – for 5 days. Their cases were considered be the judge Viktoryia Shabunia at the court session, which took place right in the police department of the Tsentralny district, where the detainees were taken the night before.
Human rights defenders reported that the cases were considered behind closed doors, despite the Supreme Court saying in their press-release that visiting session of the court were open to public.
Administrative case of pensioner Nina Bahinskaya, who was also arrested in the evening on 22 January, but then released from the police department, was considered today in the building of the Tsentralny District Court. Woman was fined 20 basic units (more than $ 200).
“In recent years, any outdoor activity in absolutely any form is brutally suppressed by the authorities. Distribution of leaflets on the street, public photo shoot is treated as an unauthorized picket. In this case, it was the laying of flowers, that was seen by police officers as an unauthorized event. It seems to me that all this indicates the oncoming of presidential elections. For the authorities, it is essential to suppress any outdoor activity, no matter on what subject, no matter who does it. They just do not want to allow people out on the streets,” – commented on the situation Valiantsin Stefanovich – deputy chairman of the Human Rights Centre “Viasna”, shut down by the authorities.
According to Stefanovich, the actions of the authorities were defiantly harsh. “The court session have been completely closed. Nobody was able to attend the hearing of these cases, only the people themselves, in respect to who the administrative process was conducted, lawyers who they managed to find, and a few witnesses who were interviewed after the submission of petitions. Neither journalists nor representatives of human rights organizations or members of the public, could not get to the court sessions” – says Valiantsin Stefanovich.
He stresses that this is a flagrant violation of one of the basic principles of administrative procedure, which is enshrined in the Procedural-Executive Code of Administrative Offences – open public consideration of administrative cases. Of course there are also punishments of the arrested activists. Practically all the detainees were sentenced to administrative arrests from five to fifteen days, with the only exception of 67-year-old pensioner Mrs. Bahinskaya who was fined 20 basic units.
“She told that during and after her arrest, when they were already in the bus, and later in the police department, riot policemen behaved extremely indecent, they insulted the detainees using obscenities, allowed themselves cynical statements even towards the elderly woman and took away her crutch” – noted human rights defender.
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