The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for November 2011

15.11.2011 Charged in absentia

Civil activists Palina and Pavel Kuryianovichs were mailed copies of the violation reports which had been drawn up in their absence. According to these documents, they are charged under Article 23.34 (violation of the rules of conduct of mass events) on 26 October.

15.11.2011 Yauhen Vaskovich to spend 30 days in penal cell

Yauhen Vaskovich, a member of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party, was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment for an attempt to set afire the Babruisk KGB office. Since 19 October he has been kept in the penal cell of prison #4 in Mahiliou.

15.11.2011 Journalist Poczobut gets a warning

A Hrodna-based journalist may be sent to prison after three warning during a period of probation of his suspended sentence.

15.11.2011 Report about torture in Belarus heard at UN

Andrei Bandarenka, a former political prisoner, leader of “Platforma”, has addressed the UN Human Rights Committee with a report about tortures in Belarusian prisons.

15.11.2011 Homel: participant of People’s Assembly gets dismissed from work

Train driver and public activist Dzmitry Karashkou was fired from the Homel Railcar Repair Plant on 14 November.

14.11.2011 Maksim Hubarevich was confronted to a witness on “hooliganism case”

The confrontation of Maksim Hubarevich, one of the suspects in the criminal case concerning the alleged beating of a guard by three members of the Belarusian People’s Front, with a witness was conducted on 14 November in Minsk.

Uladzimir Labkovich: “Bialiatski’s case started with a warning, issued to him by General Procuracy for activities on behalf of an unregistered organization”

14.11.2011 Uladzimir Labkovich: “Bialiatski’s case started with a warning, issued to him by General Procuracy for activities on behalf of an unregistered organization”

On 15 October the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) produced a special report "On the conformity with the universal human rights standards of Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code on the rights of non-registered associations of the Republic of Belarus”. The uniqueness of this instrument lies in the fact that it was the first time when this authoritative legal commission considered only one article in a country’s law.

14.11.2011 Prosecutor demands capital punishment for accused of terrorist acts in Belarus

Deputy prosecutor general Aliaksei Stuk, who represents state prosecution in the case of a terrorist attack in Minsk metro on 11 April, blasts in Minsk in 2008 and in Vitsebsk in 2005, demands the court to sentence both accused, Dzmitry Kanavalau and Uladzslau Kavaliou, to death penalty without confiscation of assets, Interfax-Zapad news agency reports.

14.11.2011 Lukashenka signs a law which bans any protests

The new draconian law bans any protest rallies, including flash-mobs.

14.11.2011 Salihorsk police continue violating law on fingerprinting

Salihorsk-based civil activist Aliaksei Valabuyeu received a telephone call to his mobile. A police inspector told him to come for fingerprinting. Aliaksei refused, as he had been fingerprinted before. He also told the policeman that he could come to them only after receiving an official summon.

14.11.2011 Orsha: executive committee improves the quality of water in non-existent village

A People's Assembly was held in Orsha on 8 October. Orsha residents adopted a number of demands to the local authorities, including the improvement of the quality of drinking water in Orsha and its district.

14.11.2011 Haradok: Leanid Autukhou sues road police

Haradok-based political activist Leanid Autukhou has been deprived of his driver's license for a year and fined 280,000 rubles. He considers the punishment as politically motivated, because he had been stopped by a road policeman while returning from the People's Assembly in Vitsebsk on 8 October, and accused of a violation of traffic rules.

14.11.2011 Vitsebsk: Tatsiana Seviarynets treated as an old offender already

On 8 October Tatsiana Seviarynets, Vitsebsk coordinator of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party, held the People's Assembly in Vitsebsk. On 26 October the police charged her with the “organization of an unauthorized mass event”. Two weeks later they also recalled that she had committed this “offense” repeatedly. That's why on 11 November they came to her home in order to draw a new violation report.

14.11.2011 Brest residents struggle for their summer residences

Representatives of five associations of owners of land plots at the outskirts of Brest held a general assembly in order to find the ways to preserve their plots and houses.

14.11.2011 Polatsk: court refuses to consider case at third hearing

The third hearing concerning the financial compensation for extra work, filed by an activist of the Free Trade Union, Mikalai Sharakh, against the administration of the open joint-stock company “Shklovalakno” (“Fiberglass”) took place on 11 November.