News on the topic: criminal persecution
28.09.2008 Kalinkavichy: Pressurization of observers continues
On 26 September an observer from the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Dzianis Rabianok has been summonsed to Kalinkavichy district procuracy. There he was familiarized with a criminal case under Article 9.10 (violation of the electoral laws) that was brought against him. The formal reason for the case was an ‘application from citizens of Yelsk. Mr. Rabianok was not explained what he was charged with. He lives in Kalinkavichy and is an observer at electoral commission #41.
04.09.2008 ‘Case of 14’: personal restraint or home arrest?
This year 14 persons were accused of organization of mass riot at the protest action of entrepreneurs which was held on 21 January. One of them, Andrei Kim, was also accused of threatening with violence to a policeman and was sentenced to 1,5 years of jail. Two more, Anton Koipish and Uladzimir Siarheyeu, were punished with fines. One person remains abroad and therefore still has not received any punishment. The rest of the 14 were sentenced to different terms of personal restraint.
07.08.2008 Vitsebsk: journalists are interrogated in criminal case on threat letters from Russian neo-Nazi
On 7 August an independent journalist Aliona Stsiapanava was summonsed to the KGB and interrogated as a witness on a criminal case that had been brought on threat letters sent by activists of an unregistered Russian neo-Nazi organization RNE (Russian National Unity). The investigator asked Stsiapanava where and when she had seen such letters and what human rights organizations she knew.
07.08.2008 Brest oblast: oppositionists still interrogated in ‘Minsk blast’ case
When Alexander Chorny, the first secretary of Kobryn town committee of the Party of Communists of Belarusian, signed out of the hospital he was visited by police officers who brought a ‘questioning blank’ with them.
04.08.2008 Asipovichy: Artsiom Dubski gets arrested
Artsiom Dubski, one of the Young Front leaders, was arrested in Asipovichy and guarded to the police department handcuffed.
11.07.2008 Human Rights Watch calls Prosecutor General to drop charges against Andrei Kim
Human Rights Watch is an international, nonpartisan, nongovernmental human rights organization with offices around the world, including New York, London, Berlin, Geneva, Brussels, Moscow, and Tashkent. Its Europe and Central Asia division has monitored and urged compliance with the human rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Accords in signatory countries and with international human rights law since the organization was formed in 1978. We are writing to express our profound concern about the recent arrests and disproportionate sentences of 10 youth activists for participating in a peaceful, but unsanctioned, protest on January 10, 2008. We are especially concerned about Andrei Kim, who is among these ten and who was arrested at a subsequent peaceful protest on January 21. He was charged with violations related to both protests and received a disproportionately harsh sentence for offences based on what we believe to be political reasons.
10.07.2008 Cassation complaint on the ‘case of 14’ is to be considered on 22 July
The cassation complaint concerns 10 of the 13 tried activists and will be considered by Minsk cit court on 22 July.
10.07.2008 Five persons are arrested in connection with Minsk blast
Many electronic mass media continue informing that four former activists of the underground organization White Legion, Siarzhuk Chyslau, Ihar Korsak, Miraslau Lazouski and Viktar Liashchynski, have been arrested within the frames of the criminal case which has been brought on the fact of the bomb blast during the official concert in the night of 3-4 July.
12.06.2008 Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders expresses its grave concern with persecution of Leanid Svetsik
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in *Belarus*.
12.06.2008 Vitsebsk oblast chamber of judges abolishes sentence to Nikolai Kostyshev
As the organization committee for the establishment of the Belarusian committee for protection of the prisoners’ rights Over the Barrier learned from the relatives of the Russian citizen Nikolai Kostyshev, the ruling to abolish the sentence to him had been issued on 29 April 2008, but the relatives found about it only on 9 June, from the prisoner’s letter.
04.06.2008 Open letter of Human Rights House Foundation in support of human rights defender Leanid Svetsik
The Human Rights House Foundation is concerned about the harassment of the human rights defender Leanid Svetsik. On Friday, 23 May 2008 three KGB officers burst into Svetsik’s apartment in Vitebsk. The following search lasted for nine hours and was directed by the senior lieutenant of the KGB. During the search, the KGB confiscated Svetsik’s computer, human rights related printed material and a certificate from the Council of Europe. After the search, Svetsik was brought to the KGB office of Vitebsk region where he was interrogated for more than two hours. The interrogation was videotaped.
27.05.2008 Last sentences in the ‘case of 14’
Chronicle of the trial
27.05.2008 Political prisoner Andrei Kim is kept in quarantine of Babruisk penal colony
Andrei’s mother, Tatsiana Kim, learnt it from the special department of the colony. ‘I phoned there and they said there was such a person there, they told he wasn’t convicted, but had filed a cassation appeal,’ Tatsiana Kim told to RFE/RL.
23.05.2008 ‘Case of 14’: trial postponed till 26 May
The trail over the participants of the protest of entrepreneurs has been postponed till 26 May, 9.30 a.m. Maksim Dashuk, Mikhal Subach and Pavel Vinahradau will appear in court. Another participant of the process – Alexander Barazenka, is abroad now. The case will be judged by Viktar Yesman.
14.05.2008 Last four figurants of the ‘case of fourteen’ to be tried 23 May
23 May the trial in the case of participants of the protest rally of market vendors is to continue in the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk.
