Svetlahorsk: Activist Charged with ‘Abuse of Press Liberty’

Svetlahorsk district prosecutor’s office has brought a criminal case against the 22-year-old resident of Svetlahorsk Kiryl Ksiandzou for writing a critical article about the local election 2007. The case is lead by the senior aide of the prosecutor Tatsiana Khrystsiuk.

Ksiandzou’s article They Know Their Roles was published in Rehiianalnyia naviny newspaper which is distributed in Svetlahorsk and Svetlahorsk district. It includes the following remark about the deputies who were elected to Svetlahorsk district deputy soviet: ‘They don’t decide anything in the city and the district for a long time already as their main task is to please the state vertical, the problems of ordinary citizens being less important. We will hardly hear anything about them till the next election. The article also features a photo of Aliaksandr Lukashenka with the inscription: ‘I don’t care about your votes – your participation is what counts. Legitimize the farce by taking part in our ‘election’!'

On the eve of 25 March the police found a sheave of Rehiianalnyia naviny while searching the apartment of another Svetlahorsk activist, Vadzim Bohdan. If the court finds him guilty, Ksiandzou can be fined 30-75 US dollars.