Weekly review of post-election situation in Belarus (7-13 March)

On 9 March the assistant to the Representative of the International Observation Mission of the Committee on International Control over the Situation with Human Rights in Belarus, citizen of the Ukraine Maxim Kitsyuk was denied entry to the territory of the Republic of Belarus while crossing the border by train Kyiv - Minsk.

On 10 March two verdicts on the 19 December "mass riot" criminal case were announced: Liubou Siamakhina, Judge of the Maskouski District Court of Minsk punished the citizens of the Russian Federation Artyom Breus and Ivan Gaponov with fines equal to $3,470, and Alena Rudnitskaya, Judge of the same court, sentenced Dzmitry Miadzvedz to three years of personal restraint without direction to an open penitentiary institution. On 12 March the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus dismissed the appeal of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee against the warning issued to it by the Ministry of Justice on 12 January. A Young Front activist Ales Lukashou was expelled from the second year at of the physical faculty of the Belarusian State University, allegedly for the failure to pass some exams.

On 8 March the leader of the European Belarus civil campaign, a former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau turned 57. He is still held in the pre-trial prison of the Minsk KGB on charges in organizing mass riot on 19 December 2010. Before this, the Minsk City Bar disbarred his lawyer, Pavel Sapelka, and the guards of the pre-trial prison refused to accept a parcel for Mr. Sannikau.

On 9 March the Supreme Economic Court annulled the warning that had been issued by the Ministry of Justice to the Autoradio by the Ministry of Justice, and the decision of the Republican commission on TV and radio broadcasting about stopping the air of the radio station. Judge Valery Shobik also obliged the ministry and the commission to compensate the court expenses of Autoradio, 1.4 million rubles. The warning, which accuses the FM-radio station of airplay of calls to extremist activities (the phrase of Andrei Sannikau "The fate of the country is decided not in the kitchen, but on the square") was issued on 10 January and served as the formal reason for the decision of the Republican commission on TV and radio broadcasting 188/11 of 11 January 2011, signed by the Chair of the commission, Information Minister Aleh Praliaskouski, by which the radio station was put off the air.

Ales Lukashou, a member of the electoral team of the presidential candidate U.Niakliayeu, was expelled from the second year of the physical faculty of Belarusian State University. The formal reason is the failure to pass the winter exams. Before this, the Young Front activist had been repeatedly summonsed to the police in connection with the 19 December street action.

The editorial board of the socio-political weekly Nasha Niva received an answer from the Minsk and Minsk region KGB Department concerning its request to return the confiscated computer equipment. As it was stated in the NN petition, the absence of the equipment that had been confiscated during the searches at the office of the newspaper and the apartments of its editor Andrei Skurko and the photo correspondent Yuliya Darashkevich createed obstacles to professional activities of the staff. That’s why the editorial board asked the KGB to return at least the part of the computer equipment which weren’t necessary for the investigation purposes.

According to the answer, signed by Colonel Uladzimir Kalach, ‘the things will be returned after the necessary process actions are conducted’. Meanwhile, some of the confiscated information carriers are completely empty.

On 9 March 2011 at 3:20 am, while crossing the border by train Kyiv - Minsk, the assistant to the Representative of the International Observation Mission of the Committee on International Control over the Situation with Human Rights in Belarus, member of the Foundation for Regional Initiatives (organization – participant of the Committee), citizen of the Ukraine Maxim Kitsyuk was denied entry to the territory of the Republic of Belarus. According to officer of the Homel border patrol, who was contacted by telephone, the reason for refusal was the fact that the entry to Belarus is denied for Maxim. The Committee on International Control over the Human Rights Situation in Belarus was established by a coalition of non-governmental organizations from the OSCE region on December 27th, 2010. The Committee engages in monitoring and control over the observation of fundamental human rights, conditions of human rights defenders and human rights organizations in the country.

On 10 March the trial over the citizens of the Russian Federation Artyom Breus and Ivan Gaponov ended at the Maskouski District Court of Minsk. The case was considered by Judge Liubou Siamakhina. Breus and Gaponov repeated their testimonies of 22 February, confessing that they had come to Nezalezhnasts Square on 19 December because of interest to the events, but hadn’t had any intention to take part in mass riot, hadn't committed any violent actions and hadn't demolished property. According to the court verdict, A.Breus and I.Gaponov were found guilty of violating Article 293, part 2 of the Criminal Code, "participation in mass riot" and sentenced to fines of 10.5 million rubles (about $3,470) with the use of Article 70 of the Criminal Code. The restraint to them was changed to a written undertaking not to leave the city and behave properly. The convicts were released from guard in the court hall. The civil proceedings within the framework of the criminal case were dropped because the plaintiff revoked the claim due to the complete compensation of the material damage.

On 10 March Alena Rudnitskaya, Judge of the Maskouski District Court, considered the criminal case against another participant of the 19 December action, Dzmitry Miadzvedz. He was sentenced to 3 years of personal restraint without direction to an open penitentiary institution.

Human rights defenders reached the following conclusions as a result of monitoring of the trial on the criminal case on the "mass riot" and analysis of the court sittings:

- No evidence was presented at court that the events of 19 December 2010 in Nezalezhnasts Square of Minsk were a mass riot, which must be accompanied with personal violence, pogroms, arsons, demolition of property and armed resistance to public officers.

- The evidence that was presented to the court confirms only the personal presence of A.Breus, I.Gaponov and Dz.Miadzvedz in the group of demonstrators in Nezalezhnasts Square near the central entrance of the Government House, which can by no means constitute corpus delicti.

- In such circumstances, the human rights defenders consider that the issued verdict is unlawful and must be abolished because of the absence of corpus delicti in the actions of the convicts.

- the trials over Breus, Gaponov and Miadzvedz  were different from the previous trials, (of Parfiankou, Novik, Malchanau and Atroshchankau), as this time the procuracy presented new charges to defendants, trying to refine the notion of the mass riot. More policemen who had received insignificant injuries during the 19 December action were introduced in the case on motion of the state accusation. It should be noted that that the victims were questioned and examined by forensic expertise only on 18 February 2011, almost two months after the events of 19 December 2010, and after the case materials had been passed to court;

-  The court, using Article70 of the Criminal Code, which gives the right to use a punishment even milder than the lowest sanction provided by the accusative article, found Miadzvedz guilty of participation in the mass riot and sentenced him to three years of personal restraint without direction to an open penitentiary institution. Thus, Miadzvedz was released from guard at the court hall. This witnesses the political motivation of the verdict, because at earlier trials on the criminal case defendants were sentenced to imprisonment, though there was no evidence of their guilt either.

On 10 March Sviatlana Akulich, Judge of the Pukhavichy District Court, refused to reinstate at work Natallia Illinich, a teacher of history at the secondary school in Talka. The politically motivated dismissal by the school headmaster, Natallia Merkul, was connected with the search held at Illinich's apartment by KGB and police officers on 5 January within the framework of the 19 December "mass riot" case. The judge ignored the testimonies of Natallia Illinich's colleagues and pupils and the fact that she was just one of the four teachers of the Talka school who had the highest qualification.

On 10 March Iryna Kazak, Judge of the Hlybokaye District Court, dropped the administrative case against an observer of the civil campaign Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections, Kastys Shytal, due to the expiry of the terms for administrative punishment. The idea to punish the activist belongs to the Hlybokaye District Executive Committee: on 22 February its legal adviser composed a report that the activist had allegedly violated the electoral legislation during the presidential electoral campaign by asking students of the local lyceum whether they came to vote early on their own will.

On 10 March a Hrodna journalist Andrei Pachobut received by mail an official warning, issued to him by the Hrodna Region Procuracy for working with the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza without an official accreditation. The document states that "According to Article 35 of the Republic of Belarus On mass media, professional activity of journalists for foreign media without accreditation is banned, but you don't abide by this legal requirement". Meanwhile, the journalist was deprived of accreditation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a year ago. He was detained for presence on Nezalezhnasts Square on 19 December and tried twice for it. At first Mr. Pachobut was sentenced to pay a large fine. However, the verdict was abolished because on a protest of the procuracy, and the sentence was replaced with 15 days of arrest. In the beginning of March he addressed the Prosecutor General, Ryhor Vasilevich, with an official statement concerning a juridical casus: "If I was detained at 9.45 p.m., how could I witness the beating of windows of the Government House at 10.21? Mr. prosecutor, one doesn't need to be a doctor, a professor or a honored lawyer to understand that it's impossible. Either I was detained at 9.45 or saw the beating of the windows at 10.21, tertium non datur." That's why A.Pachobut, a graduate of the juridical faculty of the Hrodna State University, asked the prosecutor to either issue a protest against the court verdict on his case or instigate a criminal case against him, for giving knowingly false testimony.

On 10 March Siarhei Kavaliou, Judge of the Mahiliou Region Court, left standing the verdicts of the Leninski District Court of Mahliou to three participants of a picket of solidarity with political prisoners (Valiantsin Labachou had been sentenced to 7 days of arrest, Siarhei Niahatsin – to 5 days of arrest, and Natallia Shkadun (mother of many children) had been issued with an official warning). The fourth participant of the picket, student of the Mahiliou State University Maksim Antsypovich, was tried on 3 March and sentenced to a fine of 525,000 rubles (about $175). On 10 March he filed an appeal with the Mahiliou Region Court as well.

On 12 March the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus dismissed the appeal of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee against the warning that had been issued to the organization by the Ministry of Justice on 12 January, after the human rights defenders informed Gabriela Knaul, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers about pressurization of the lawyers who defended figurants of the 19 December mass riot case. Judge Halina Zhukouskaya agreed with arguments of representatives of the Ministry of Justice. She also pointed that the BHC used a name which didn't correspond to its charter, and an old seal.

On 12 March the verdicts to Dz.Novik and A.Malchanau, sentenced to 3 and 3.5 years of imprisonment respectively within the frames of the "mass riot" case concerning the events of 19 December, entered into legal force. A.Atroshchankau and V.Parfiankou, punished with 4 years in maximum-security colony, filed cassation appeals and are waiting for their consideration by the Minsk City Court.

The well-known journalist and political analyst Aliaksandr Klaskouski addressed the Prosecutor General Ryhor Vasilevich with an open letter in connection with the detention of his son in the pre-trial prison of the KGB for participation in the protest action of 19 December. "I have serious reasons to consider that he is subject to mockery and psychological pressurization regardless of  elementary legal norms", writes A.Klaskouski. "Aliaksandr's wife Natallia has been trying to meet with him without any results. Only four letters from him have been received for the four months of detention, though, judging by the texts, he has written much more." The journalist points that the procuracy must react to media articles concerning law violations. "I believe that in this case the law is simply trampled. React, Mr. Prosecutor!" calls A.Klaskouski.

The presidential candidate Mikola Statkevich, his electioneering agent Siarhei Martsaleu and the Chair of the United Civil Party Anatol Liabedzka haven't met with their lawyers since 29 December 2010. The formal reason is the absence of free rooms for meetings. There is almost no information about the state of their health, because their relatives receive their letters from the KGB prison very seldom. On 10 March Sviatlana Liabedzka addressed the Minsk prosecutor with a statement about the inadmissibility of such situation. She asks him to hold a check-up of the conditions of keeping of her husband in the pre-trial prison of the KGB, take measures of prosecutorial reaction and inform hear about them. She also asks to "ensure to the full extent the husband's right to defense and oblige the investigation to immediately provide him with the right to meet with his lawyer".

Interrogations in connection with the post-election protest action of 19 December continued. In particular, on 11 March the KGB summonsed for interrogation the former presidential candidate Dzmitry Uss, a suspect on the criminal case under Article 293. His next interrogation was appointed on 14 March. On 12 March, an activist of the Young Front Yulian Misiukevich was taken to an interrogation right from his classes at the physical faculty of Belarusian State University.