Slonim: executive committee consistently denies permission for pickets

Ales Masiuk, an activist from the town of Slonim, Hrodna region, was not allowed to stage another picket scheduled for November 17 in the town park. The picket was expected to support the right of Slonim district residents to freely subscribe to the independent newspaper Hazeta Slonimskaya using the Belarusian post network, as well as to freely buy it at the Belsayuzdruk newsstands. The ban signed by the Acting First Deputy Chairman Uladzislau Hershhoryn was received just four days before the planned event. It explains that on the same day and time the location in Opernaya Street will be occupied by a mass public event entitled “Younger Generation – Ready!” to mark the International Students’ Day. Slonim activists point out that the district authorities have chosen similar moves as their favorite tactic of far-fetched reasons, denying citizens their legitimate constitutional right to hold public events.

Ales Masiuk intends to further attempt to break the bureaucratic wall of local executive authorities. He is now waiting for the consideration of his complaint to the Hrodna Regional Court filed to challenge a similar ban. In addition, he has submitted three more applications to the Slonim district executive committee asking for permission to hold a series of pickets and is preparing two more, i.e. 5 applications for pickets on the same topic within 5 days - from December 3 to December 7. The activist wonders what Slonim officials will come up with this time?