Brest: court punishes participants of electoral picket with fines

Leader of the Brest regional UCP branch Uladzimir Vuyek was fined 25 basic units, and activists of the party Dyiana Kastsiukovich and Yury Zhydovich – 10 basic units each.

They were punished for a picket, which was initiated by the United Civil Party and was held in Savetskaya Street in Brest on February 24. Though the police remarked that the evet was held in a place which couldn't be used for pickets according to the decision of the city authorities, nobody was detained.

However, the police officers put down the passport data of the picket participants and soon charged them with holding unauthorized picket. The court supported their position and fined the picketers.

“At court, we referred to Article 35 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to peaceful assemblies and processions”, stated Uladzimir Vuyek. “However, the court ignored our arguments, as well as the provisions of the electoral legislation allowing such events during the campaign period, though it was a picket of our candidate. Furthermore, the court did not take into account the fact that we warned had warned the Brest City Executive Committee about the event and nobody had forbidden us to hold it. Besides, recently a picket of activists of other political party, Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) has been held recently in the same place without any obstacles.”

"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections"