Disability rights activist in Svetlahorsk seeks prosecution for doctors who detained him

Yury Liashenka, an activist for the rights of persons with disabilities in the town of Svetlahorsk, asks the Health Care Minister to punish the doctors who detained him during a picket on November 25, brought him to hospital and made an injection allegedly due to high pressure. The activist believes that this was an example of the use of health care workers in the political persecution of citizens.

On November 25, the activist planned to stage a picket in the central square of Svetlahorsk in order to draw public attention to violations of the rights of people with disabilities. However, an ambulance pulled over and the disabled activist was dragged into the car. The doctors told him that he needed urgent aid, even though he claimed the opposite and had not called an ambulance. Yury Liashenka was brought to local hospital and the doctors made him an injection for high blood pressure. Then a policeman appeared and charged the activist with illegal picketing.

“Please submit at my disposal a full medical report on the state of my health on November 25, 2014, including the answers to the questions why, what injection and on what basis was made to me in the emergency room of the hospital,” writes the activist in his complaint to the Minister of Health Care.

The complaint was written with assistance from human rights activist Leanid Sudalenka.

“I believe that in this case you subordinate employees of a health care institution were involved in political persecution for exercising of my inalienable civil and political rights,” says Yury Liashenka.

For staging an unauthorized picket on November 25, the activist was also punished by a fine of 300,000 rubles.