The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for 3 Jun 2011

03.06.2011 Rahachou: opposition activist is promised a decrease in the sum of fines in case he gives up politics

Dzianis Dashkevich, an activist of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy, intends to hold the first socio-political action in the history of Rahachou on 3 July. According to his plan, several tens of people should come to the center of the town with posters “Where are 500 US dollars?” (the sum of the average wage publicly promised to Belarusian citizens by Aliaksandr Lukashenka).

03.06.2011 Hrodna: human rights defender Rutkouskaya appeals fine

On 25 May Sviatlana Rutkouskaya, a member of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee from Hrodna, was fined by the head of the Leninski District Police Department, lieutenant colonel Yauhen Yarmantovich. The matter is that Rudkouskaya, being the head of a local housing cooperative, had allegedly failed to issue the complaint book to a citizen, thus violating Article 9.24 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus.

03.06.2011 Editorial board of independent socio-political website gets evicted from office

The editorial board of the socio-political website ex-press.by, created by journalists of the private socio-political newspaper Kur'yer z Barysava (closed down before the 2006 presidential election), is evicted from the rented office.

03.06.2011 Human rights defender asks Ministry of Justice to punish Belarusian National Youth Union (BRSM)

A Vitsebsk human rights defender, representative of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Pavel Levinau addressed the Justice Minister asking to punish the pro-governmental “state NGO” Belarusian National Youth Union for improper use of its name.

03.06.2011 Human rights defender sues Life:) for blocking opposition websites

Aleh Matskevich wants to find out why the closed joint stock company BeST, a provider of mobile communications in Belarus, blocks the access to the websites charter97.org, belaruspartisan.org and prokopovi.ch at its 3G life service.

03.06.2011 Brief review of the process of Belarusian anarchists

The preliminary investigation into the criminal case was accompanied with serious process violations of the convicts' rights, including: arbitrary detention, violations of the terms and procedures of detention established by the Criminal-Process Code of the Republic of Belarus (CPC), violation of the right to defense, and violation of the presumption of innocence. The detention of I.Alinevich in Moscow and his transportation to the KGB pre-trial prison in Minsk were accompanied with violations of legal procedures including the procedure of extradition of Belarusian citizens to Belarus from the Russian Federation.