Uladzimir Katsora requires MIA and the Office of the Prosecutor General to bring a criminal case
On 8 October Homel
activist Uladimir Katsora, the leader of the Conference “For
honest and fair elections for a better life" filed a statement
about a criminal offence committed by a policeman to the Minister of
Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General of Belarus.
On 22
September on the road Homel-Minsk the traffic police detained a
private minibus, in which there were the delegates of the Republican
conference for the establishment of the coalition " For honest
and fair elections for a better life".
Uladzimir Katsora
has already addressed similar demands to the Homel Regional Police
Department and the Homel Regional Prosecutor's Office – the
delegates demanded to conduct ann official investigation in order to
determine the duty offficial who ordered the harassment and bring a
criminal case against this official and the police officers.
However, he received usual come-offs from the both instances:
“The prosecutor's office proposed the regional police department to
give an answer. The regional police department, unable to invent an
independent explanation for the unlawful actions of the police, and
proposed the Rechytsa District Police Department to give an answer,
which informed us that “no objective evidence of the described
facts was found". In fact, the police colonel approved the
participation of police officers in persecution of political
opponents of the government, thus concealing the fact of the criminal
offense, committed by the police," says the activist. He does
not believe in the possibility of an objective investigation of the
case and therefore intends to apply to the court.
As
previously reported, a police major Ihar Lapatsin and a captain
Siarhei Vasilchuk initially explained the reasons for stopping the
minibus by saying that it resembled of a bus which had taken part in
a car accident. After the vehicle and the delegates were taken to the
Rechytsa DPD, the police changed their versions and said they needed
to take fingreprints from thhe driver of the minibus.
After
the police made shure that the fingerprints had been taken from the
driver earlier, they demanded that he be shot on video. In the end ,
the police started pushing unfounded claims to the number of the
vehicle body and released the driver after three hours of detention
without giving him any charges or composing any process documents.
"As a result of the unreasonable hindrance on the part
of the police officers, the delegates were unable to attend the
Republican Conference in Minsk, thus their actions constitute a
criminal offense under Article 194 of the Criminal Code , namely,"
impeding the lawful activities of public associations or interference
with their legitimate activities which entail a serious breach of
their rights and legitimate interests," writes the politician in
his appeal.