News on the topic: presidential elections-2010
16.05.2011 Vileika: Valiantsin Susla fined for refusal from dactylography
On 13 May the Vileika District Court fined a local activist Valiantsin Susla 1,050,000 rubles for refusing to be fingerprinted, which was qualified as “insubordination to a legal order or demand or a public agent”.
16.05.2011 Vileika: court turned down appeal against ban of solidarity action
Yauhen Parchynski, an activist of Free Region, appealed the ban of the Freedom Day action, signed by Viachaslau Durnou, Deputy Chair of the Navapolatsk Town Executive Committee.
16.05.2011 Orsha residents try to protect historical heritage
Orsha residents collect signatures for restoration of the cloister constructed at the end of the 18th century, one of the few historical objects which survived wars and vandal acts. However, recently its roof has fallen in, after which the state of the building is rapidly deteriorating.
16.05.2011 Deputy Chair of Barysau District Executive Committee disrupts seminar in Zhodzina
On 28 April the Zhodzina police took participants of the seminar on regional development to the Zhodzina Town Police Department and demanded written explanations. According to a Barysau democratic activist Siarhei Salash, the seminar was disrupted on order of Valiantsina Shutko, Deputy Chair of the Barysau District Executive Committee.
16.05.2011 Barysau organization of United Civil Party appeals December search
The organization applied to the Minsk Region Procuracy with the request to check the legality of the warrant of the senior investigator of the Minsk City and Region KGB Department, justice captain A.Darashevich for searching the office of the Barysau town UCP organizatioin, and the legality of actions of the policemen who had conducted the search.
16.05.2011 Procuracy wants to interrogate Ivan Shyla concerning the terrorist act in the Minsk metro
Uladzimir Shyla, father of the young activist, was informed about it by Ihar Masliak, investigator of especially important cases in the Minsk region. On 11 May the investigator phoned to the Shylas and asked about the whereabouts of the elder of the Shyla brothers, Ivan. However, he refused to tell the reasons for his interest. Though it is not a secret that Ivan studies in Poland, the investigator was very eager to receive a written confirmation from the parents.
16.05.2011 Bitter Winter in Belarus
The FIDH 7-minute film Bitter Winter in Belarus denounces the violent repression exercised by the Belarus authorities against all the dissident voices that have protested against the rigging of the December 19, 2010 presidential elections.
12.05.2011 Criminal case against Salihorsk anarchists
One of the main episodes of the criminal case against Salihorsk anarchists is the assault on a police station in Salihorsk on 9 March 2010. The offenders broke the windows and threw in a pyrotechnic device. Anarchists openly took responsibility for the action and even uploaded a video to the Internet. The reasons for the action were unlawful actions of the local police and driving a local human rights defender Yana Paliakova to suicide (she hanged herself after being sentenced to imprisonment for political reasons).
12.05.2011 Criminal cases of participants of 19 December post-election protest action: verdict to Daronin, Fedarkevich, Kazakou, Loban, Matsukevich and Sakret
On 12 May Alena Shylko, Judge of the Maskouski District Court of Minsk, pronounced the sentences to six participants of the post-election protest action of 19 December 2010 in Minsk.
12.05.2011 Homel: fine to Vasil Paliakou left standing
On 11 May Dzmitry Uloha, Judge of the Homel Regioon Court considered the appeal of Vasil Paliakou, Chair of the Homel region organization of the United Civil Party, against the fine that had been imposed on him by the Savetski District Court of Homel, and left the previous verdict in force.
12.05.2011 Navapolatsk: three civil activists detained, one of them – fined for “using obscene language”
At 7 p.m. on 11 May the police detained three Navapolatsk activists, Illia Bahdanau, Viktar Kalesnik and Yauhen Parchynski, and guarded them to the Navapolatsk Town Police Department.
12.05.2011 Courts give runaround to appeal against picket ban
Mikalai Ulasevich, a civil activist from the village of Varniany (situated in the Astravets district of the Hrodna region), received a negative reply to his appeal against the ban of the anti-nuclear picket Chernobyl-Fukushima-Astravets: do we need it? The letter is singed by Aliaksandr Hrynkevich, Chair of the Hrodna Region Court. According to the document, the appeal was forwarded to the Astravets District Court.
10.05.2011 Vitsebsk: journalist decided not to attend his “trial” and was fined in absentia
Uladzislau Staraverau was to have been tried at the Kastrychnitski District Court of Vitsebsk in connection with his detention at the Chernobyl Way action held in Vitsebsk on 26 April.
10.05.2011 Police deny having detained Mikhail Kavalkou
On 29 March 2011 the leader of the Free Trade Union of Belarus Mikhail Kavalkou filed complaints with the police and the procuracy.
18.04.2011 Weekly review of post-election situation in Belarus (11-17 April)
The past week was marred by a terrible tragedy that made all other events fall by the wayside: on 11 April Minsk Kastrychnitskaya central metro station was rocked by a powerful blast, claiming 13 lives and causing injuries to over 200 more people. April 13 was declared a national day of morning. The explosion was qualified as an act of terrorism, the news that shocked Belarus as it had always been thought of as a rather safe country. On 12 April, a PACE meeting in Strasbourg considered the scheduled Belarusian issues, which was condemned by the official media, who labeled the human rights defenders attending the meeting as “a fifth column”, naming their actions “dance on bones”. However, the state-run media failed to mention a one-minute silence that opened the PACE session. A number of Belarusian politicians and journalists, including opposition leader Aliaksandr Milinkevich, independent columnist Aliaksandr Starykevich and former KGB officer Valery Kostka, were officially warned by the General Prosecutor’s Office for alleged dissemination of “ungrounded data on the 11 April tragedy.” Furthermore, the Information Ministry issued similar warnings to the Nasha Niva and Narodnaya Volya independent periodicals, together with the UzHorak minor local newspaper. Several case files of persons involved in the 19 December 2010 events were submitted to courts. Civil activists kept campaigning for the release of journalist Andrzej Poczobut, arrested on charges of libel of the President.
