Homel human rights defenders ask to be punished for photos on the web

The Homel human rights defenders Anatol Paplauny and Leanid Sudalenka ask the head of the Chyhunachny District Police Department of Homel Henadz Khmaryk to give them administrative charges for the photo in the Internet, in which they express solidarity with their colleague, political prisoner Ales Bialiatski, and congratulate him on the jubilee.

The human rights defenders held the solidarity action together with their Hrodna colleagues, Uladzimir Khilmanovich, Viktar Sazonau and Raman Yurhel.

"On 5 January 2013 the Leninski District Court of Hrodna issued administrative penalties to the Hrodna human rights defenders for a photo in the Internet, in which they can be seen holding portraits of Bialiatski and brochures of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The penalty was imposed in them on the basis of the accusation reports drawn up by officers of the Leninski DPD of Hrodna, who considered it as an unauthorized picket (violation of Article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences), and passed them to court," wrote the Homel human rights activists in their application to the Homel police.

"We inform you, that we have committed an analogical violation in the place of our residence, by uploading to the Internet a similar photography, in which we are holding texts of solidarity and congratulations on the occasion of the 50-year jubilee of our colleague, political prisoner and human rights defender Ales Bialiatski (the photo from the website is attached). We ask to start administrative proceedings against us concerning the indicated fact of violation of the administrative legislation by us," write the human rights defenders. In such unusual way they show the absurdity of the administrative proceedings in Hrodna.

According to http://gomelspring.org/