The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

Mikalai Petrushenka, human rights defender and activist of the Nash Dom campaign, has addressed head of Vitsebsk regional department of internal affairs Aliaksandr Naidzenak with a letter, urging the high police official to provide explanations concerning the confiscation of printed materials from journalist Yulia Kanapliova on 20 May.

Uladzimir Yaromenak, activist of the Young Front opposition movement, has been sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest for alleged violation of Art. 17.1 of the Administrative Code (“disorderly conduct”).

The law enforcement agencies of Belarus have drafted a bill “On Making Addenda and Amendments to the Criminal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedures, and the Penal Code of Belarus, as well as the Code of Administrative Offences”, said Mrs. Natallia Andreyeva, head of the department of procedural control over the investigation of crimes against property of the Investigative Committee of Belarus, at a briefing with a BelTA news agency reporter.

Amnesty International’s office in Berlin held an action in support of a campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus.

Brest human rights defender Uladzimir Vialichkin has lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court, appealing a decision by the city’s executive committee that imposed inadmissible restrictions on the freedom of peaceful assembly.

Homel opposition activist Uladzimir Niapomniashchykh has submitted an individual complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee against a fine received by the activist for alleged violation of peaceful assembly restriction in 2011.

Hrodna resident Ruslan Piatsko has received an official reply from the Supreme Court, saying that his appeal against a fine for refusing forced fingerprinting was dismissed.

Hrodna city executive officials have banned the holding of a series of pickets in support of retaining Polish-language education at a local secondary school attended by representatives of the city’s Polish minority.

It is two years since Baranavichy activist Mikalai Charnavus started applying for the registration of a local Ukrainian minority NGO “Kobzar”. His latest visit to chairman of Brest regional executive committee Kanstantsin Sumar was not optimistic, as the high official said the NGO could only be registered after 15 mln rubles were donated to the city budget.

Over the course of the last few days, a number of individuals and organizations, including the MEP Henryk Migalski, have called on Amnesty International to recognise Syarhei Kavalenka as a prisoner of conscience. This statement explains why Amnesty International has not been able to do so.