04.07.2011 News about political prisoners

Here are some news about the participants of the mass protests of 19 December 2010 who were sentenced to prison terms.

04.07.2011 Forced dispersals of peaceful assemblies by the police are a gross violation of human rights

Statement by the Human Rights Center Viasna

At the time of the peaceful assemblies in Minsk and other Belarusian cities on 22, 29 June 29 and 3 July officers of the Ministry of Interior used physical violence and police gear against peaceful protesters. Mass detentions were conducted: occasional passers-by were detained together with protesters. As a result, hundreds of citizens were drawn to administrative responsibility (including arrest) on false charges of disorderly conduct, the use foul language in public places. The Human Rights Centre Viasna registered numerous cases of illegal use of physical force against detainees, facts of the lawless interference with professional activities of journalists on the part of law-enforcement officers and cases of detention of human rights defenders who monitored the aforementioned events.

04.07.2011 Brest: Artur Anisimau sentenced to 6 days of arrest

On 1 July the civil activist had been detained by people in civvies and guarded to the Maskouski District Police Department, where he was given charges under Article 17.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences, “disorderly conduct”.

04.07.2011 Homel: sentences to participants of silent revolution

On 4 July Alena Tsalkova, Judge of the Tsentralny District Court of Homel, tried the people who had taken part in the silent action of protest on 3 July.

04.07.2011 Ihar Bantsar sentenced to 10 days of arrest

On 4 July journalist Ihar Bantsar, an activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus, was sentenced to 10 days of jail within closed court proceedings.

04.07.2011 Belarus: chronicle of silent revolution (updated)

According to human rights defenders, about 310 people were detained in different parts of Belarus on 3 July, 160 of them – in Minsk alone. 5 people were detained in Baranavichy, about 30 – in Homel, about 80 – in Hrodna, 15 – in Mahiliou, 6 – in Smaliavichy, 7 – in Vitsebsk, 2 – in Zhlobin.

04.07.2011 Stanislau Shushkevich and 15 EHU students detained on Belarusian border

On 2 July evening the politician Stanislau Shushkevich and 15 students of the European Humanities University set down the train Vilnius-Minsk on the Belarusian border. The detainees were kept on the border for six hours.

04.07.2011 Hrodna: detention of journalist Ihar Bantsar

Ihar Bantsar, a journalist and activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus, was detained on 3 July morning near his house. He managed to phone somebody and tell that most probably he would be tried for the unauthorized picket he had held on 28 June, during the trial of another journalist and UPB activist, Andrei Pachobut.

04.07.2011 Brest: intimidation and arrests, too

Brest police warned the mother of a civil activist Siarhei Aleksievich about the inadmissibility of his participation in the silent protest action. Two policemen came to the Aleksievichs' apartment at about 12.30 a.m. on 1 July. One of them was in uniform, the other – in plain clothes.

04.07.2011 Mahiliou: intimidation and arrests

Unidentified persons threatened opposition activists and journalists with “responsibility” for participation in the silent action of protest Revolution Through Social Networks.

04.07.2011 Head of Rahachou Belarusian Christian Democracy sentenced to 5 days in jail

On 1 July Dzianis Dashkevich, the head of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy in the town of Rahachou, was sentenced to 5 days of jail.

04.07.2011 Preventive detentions in Homel

On 1 July in Homel Andrei Tsianiuta, head of the Homel branch of the Young Front, was detained in the yard of his house and put in jail. Two more activists, Pavel Pryvalau and Ruslan Ustsimenka, were detained as well. Pryvalau is charged with disorderly conduct.