Picket against police violence banned in Vitsebsk

January 12 such an action was to have been held by the well-known psychiatrist Ihar Pastnou. He believes that the issue of the people prone to violence and sadism working in the police is very relevant today. However, his bid for the picket was dismissed by the Vitsebsk Kastrychnitski District Executive Committee.

The official reason for the ban of the picket is the failure of the applicant to present service contracts with the police, ambulance and public utilities, required under regulation No, 881 of Vitsebsk City Executive Committee. However, it is virtually impossible to implement this requirement, as the aforementioned agencies refuse to enter into any contracts for serving mass events before being presented the offiical permit of the authorities. That's why in the past four years
no mass events initiated by civil society activists have been allowed by the authorities. At the same time, holding unauthorized mass events is punished with a fine or arrest or up to 15 days.

Ihar Pastnou was going to hold a silent action in the place which was deternined for such events by the authorities. He considers the ban as unfair. He was a medic and therefore he considered entering into any service agreements with the ambulance. He didn't intend to throw any litter on the ground during the requiem picket for the victims of police violence. According to him, the police must be present at the place of the picket even without entering into any special service agreements. He was going to hold the picket on a day-off, January 12, in a place of mass recreation of citizens, which must be patrolled by the police. Secondly, the purpose of the picket, protest against police violence, should be relevant for the entire police leadership and ordinary policemen, who ought to support the proposal of "cleansing" this agency from persons prone to sadism and violence.

His views on the prohibition of the picket Mr. Pastnou expressed in his latest video appeal, in which he remembers the facts of police violence that claimed the health or even lives of some citizens of Vitsebsk.