Salihorsk police evade from answering inquiry about possibility of handing out national symbols

Salihorsk activists of the United Civil Party concerning their inquiry about the possibility of the legal distribution of white-red-white flags and the officially registered historical emblem “Pahonia” among the local population.

The head of the Salihorsk DPD Andrei Rusanovich evaded from answering the raised question and warned the activists about the possible punishment for commercial distribution of such products.

The reason for such an inquiry to the law enforcement agencies was a fact of trading the flags of the former USSR in various parts of Salihorsk, including a large parking lot near a hypermarket, by a group of unidentified individuals.

“First, we were interested to find whether that group was acting legally while selling the Soviet symbols in our city without any hindrance from the side of the police. Secondly, we wanted to find whether the police will hinder us to hand out Belarusian national symbols. Meanwhile, we stressed that we would not sell them, but hand out for free,” comments one of the applicants, Salihorsker Viktar Malochka.

As it follows from the received answer, the Salihorsk DPD held an inspection on the fact of sale of Soviet symbols, but “failed to find the persons which need to be drawn to administrative responsibility”. Andrei Rusanovich stated that sell of goods in the places which weren't officially designated for it is punishable, but didn't answer the question regarding free distribution of white-red-white flags and “Pahonia”.