The appeal underlines, that “Tatsiana Reviaka is the president of the Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House and a member of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”. Ms. Reviaka is a human rights defender, who is well known in Belarus and abroad for her active work for the protection of victims of human rights violations and their families, as well as for working to protect the rights of all people in Belarus.”
Tatsiana Reviaka was detained on 26 March 2017, at the moment when she was lawfully monitoring peaceful protests in Minsk. After her arrest she was taken to the police department of Tsentralny district of Minsk, where she was held for three hours.
“The trial of Tatsiana Reviaka should not serve as an example of persecution and intimidation faced by human rights defenders, journalists and other civil society activists, who are monitoring the protests in Belarus. These facts of the persecution, in our opinion, indicate that the current accusation against Tatsiana Reviaka is not connected to any misconduct, but is used as a punitive measure in response to her professional activity,”- stated in the Appeal of the Human Rights House Foundation.
Recalling the right of Tatsiana Reviaka to take part in peaceful protests and to monitor them in accordance with international human rights law, the Human Rights House Foundation reminds the court of the international commitments undertaken by the Republic of Belarus.
“We also inform the Court, that any criminal and administrative penalties against Tatsiana Reviaka will be considered as disproportionate and violating international law in the field of human rights. Thus, we believe that the important role of the Court to ensure justice for Tatsiana Reviaka, as well as all other participants of peaceful demonstrations who faced similar charges, is to remove all accusations connected to the participation in the above mentioned protests and their monitoring,”- emphasized in the Appeal “On the administrative prosecution of Tatsiana Reviaka”.
The Appeal was signed by Florian Irminger, the Head of advocacy at the Human Rights House Foundation.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Tatsiana Reviaka was detained on 26 March and taken to the police department of Tsentralny district of Minsk, where she was held for three hours. The police officers compiled two protocols for the human rights defender: under Article 17.1 of the Administrative Code (petty hooliganism) and Article 23.4 of the Administrative Code (disobedience to police).The protocols were now shown to the human rights defender and she did not sign them.
The Human rights defender sent a complaint to the Minsk Prosecutor’s office in connection with her arbitrary detention on October Square on March 26, and cruel treatment at the Central police station, where she was taken after her arrest.
Related articles:
