GayBelarus leaders summoned for conversation to Office for Drug Control and Combating Trafficking in Person

On August 16, Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Project "GayBelarus" Maksim Dzmitryeu was summoned as a witness without specifying the administrative or criminal case to the Office for Drug Control and Combating Trafficking in Persons of the criminal police. The "conversation," as the representative of the "Belarusian Helsinki Committee", was attended by human rights activist Natalia Mankouskaya.

As the activists say, the "conversation" was more or less calm. And it was just talk, not an interrogation of the witness. No records were ever kept.

The conversation started with questions about the human rights project "GayBelarus", its plans and the activities carried out at the moment. All these questions were rejected by Maksim Dzmitryeu, referring to Art. 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. However, the police officer did not forget to remind that the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus provides criminal liability for acting on behalf of an unregistered organization.

Pretty soon the topic of conversation changed to pornography, pedophilia, rape of minors. The policemen tried to explain that the number of crimes against minors is growing, and that the vast majority of these crimes are committed by LGBT persons.

Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Project "GayBelarus" Maksim Dzmitryeu believes that "criminal behavior of one representative of the LGBT community cannot result in a restriction of civil and political rights of the entire LGBT community and justify the persecution of LGBT activists."