Ryhor Kastusiou keeps appealing penalty for memorial action

On 23 February, deputy chairman of the BPF Party Ryhor Kastusiou filed a supervisory appeal to the Chairman of the Mahiliou Regional Court against a fine of 25 basic units (3,750,000 rubles) imposed on him for participating in allegedly unauthorized public events in the town of Svislach and in the village of Yakushouka held on 26 October 2014.

Ryhor Kastusiou asks to cancel the decision of 23 December 2014 by Judge Barantsava of the Shklou District Court and to close the administrative case due to lack of an offense. In addition, the politician requests a special ruling to Judge Barantsava and Judge Hladki of the Mahiliou Regional Court because of apparent violations of the law.

Human rights activist Baris Bukhel notes that the prosecution of Ryhor Kastusiou is political in nature:

“In the case of Ryhor Kastusiou, the courts ignored the law, in particular, the hierarchy of laws, international covenants and agreements that are ratified and signed by the Republic of Belarus and are part of the Belarusian legislation. They violated everything they could violate. The courts did not pay attention to a single argument in defense of the defendant. If we are not heard here, we will write to the Supreme Court, and then to the United Nations Human Rights Committee,” says he.

On 26 October 2014, Svislach hosted a traditional commemoration of the 1863 anti-Russian rebels. The event was attended by a number of public and political activists of Belarus, including ex-presidential candidate Ryhor Kastusiou, who made a short speech. Everything that happened at the event was recorded by a police cameraman. Besides Ryhor Kastusiou, fines for participation in this event were handed won to a dozen more activists.