Alena Masliukova: "I've worked as a human rights defender and I will continue my work”

On May 23, the Svietlahorsk District Department of the Investigative Committee initiated special proceedings against Viasna human rights defender Alena Masliukova. She is accused of other facilitating extremist activities under Part 1 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code and of the same act committed repeatedly (Part 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code).

Commenting on the actions of the investigators, Alena Masliukova noted that she does not have information about the essence of the accusation.

"Today I found out that so-called special proceedings have been started against to me. I will say that I have not received any notifications that a criminal case has been initiated. There was a letter saying that the preliminary investigation was suspended, and then, in April, that the investigation was resumed again. No further information followed. And today I learned about the initiation of special procedings.

How should I react to this? If there are no laws in the country, then you can do anything, but this does not mean that they will break me, or force me to do something other than what I was doing. I've worked as a human rights defender and I will continue my work.”

Alena Masliukova is currently taking part in the Congress on Political Prisoners in Belarus #WithoutJustCause, taking place in Prague.