Siarhiei Murashka Is Going to Sue Polytechnics Director

On 3 June the sitting of the Commission on affairs of minors of Zhodzina Town City Committee took place. Siarhiei Murashka’s father was invited there. The human rights activist Aliaksiei Lapitski also tried to get there with his Dictaphone. Though the sitting was opened, the chair of the committee categorically ordered him to leave the sitting hall. Finally, a policeman forcibly pulled Lapitski out.

At the sitting the director of Zhodzina Polytechnics asked the commission to permit Murashka’s remand from the polytechnics

-- The situation in quite weird, -- comments the lawyer of HRC Viasna Valiantsin Stefanovich. – The procedure of remand is described in the ruling about technical educational establishments, was adopted by the Ministry of Education in 2003. According to point 38 of this ruling, a minor can be remanded from such educational establishment only for systematic violations of its statute and the internal regulations. At first he/she can be rebuked and remand is the last measure. A minor can be remanded only on the agreement of the Commission on the cases of minors of the local executive committee and only in the case all other measures applied gave no result. In this situation the order about remand was issued without permission of the commission on cases of minors and now the director asks the commission to permit what he has already done, which is a gross violation of the law. Meanwhile, Murashka had neither rebukes nor warnings issued to him this year, his parents weren’t let familiarize with the internal regulations of the polytechnics, that’s why we don’t know even whether there’s really a paragraph that prohibits participation in unauthorized mass actions. We know about it only from what the director says. Frankly speaking, I really doubt such point really exists. In any case, this is an evident case of political repression of a regime’s opponent. That’s why Murashka’s parents will complain against the director’s order to the court.