Activist of BPF Youth Threatened with Property Confiscation and Travel Restrictions

07.12.2007. Tags: political persecution, students, expulsion, BPF Youth, fines.
Source: RFE/RL.

Today the activist of the BPF Youth Zmitser Zhaleznichenka was summonsed to Chyhunachny district court of Homel. The court marshal Dzianis Saponenka demanded from the activist explanations why he did not pay any fines. 

Zhaleznichenka said that he did not work, that’s why he had no money. Instead he is trying to get rehabilitated at the university. He also believes that the fines were given to him for wiredrawn reasons. 

The student refused to give explanations in Russian and the court did not have the appropriate blanks in Belarusian. Then the court marshal brought him to the chair of the court Tatsiana Adrybets. She expressed her surprise with the fact that the court marshal could not get to the apartment where Zhalezhnichenka was living with his parents and advised him to take with him the police and the rescuers to forcedly open the door and attach the property. 

Adrybets also surprised Zhaleznichenka by saying that there was the official point of view that he was going to ask for political asylum in the United States of America or Germany. She told him all these hopes were in vain, as foreign travels would be banned to the activist. 

A third-year student of the mathematical faculty Zmitser Zhaleznichenka was expelled from Homel state university in September, after the university received from the tax inspection the ruling of the economic court to fine him for organizing a concert of Belarusian bards. The formal reason for Zhaleznichenka’s expulsion was violation of the internal regulations of the university. 

After this Zhaleznichenka was sentenced to eight days of jail, allegedly for dirty swearing, and fined about 144 USD for insubordination to the police. 

On 13 December Homel oblast court will consider the appeal of the former student against the verdict of Tsentralny district court of Homel confirming the legality of his expulsion from the university.

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