News on the topic: human rights defenders
04.04.2015 Valiantsin Stefanovich: Minister's explanations are beyond criticism
Vigilance of the police towards photographers aims at "protecting citizens against potential threats". This was announced by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Belarus Ihar Shunevich.
03.04.2015 Valiantsin Stefanovich: Stable communication with relatives helps rehabilitate offenders
According to the amendments to the law “About the order and conditions of detention”, adopted in the first reading by the House of Representatives, the length of short-term meetings of prisoners with their relatives will be reduced from three to two hours. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs Ihar Shunevich, it is made "solely for educational purposes, to influence the behavior of those who are in custody".
03.04.2015 Mahiliou human rights activist asks the Constitutional Court to eliminate legal collisions
The corresponding statement was filed by Barys Buhkel sent to the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus Piatro Miklashevich.
03.04.2015 Police looking for “Viasna” in Ihar Barysau's computer
Police returned one of the seized computers to Chief Editor of "NASH Mahiliou" newspaper Ihar Barysau. As stated by the police major Uladzimir Kazakou, the others are still under examination and can be returned within the next two weeks.
03.04.2015 Case of freelance journalist Tamara Shchapiotkina returned for a new trial
T. Schapiotkina and her lawyer Pavel Alesik managed to prove in the regional court that Judge Aliaksandr Semianchuk had violated the law by conducting the trial in her absence though she and her lawyer were at the court at that time. The cassation court agreed that by his actions the judge deprived the journalist of the right to a fair trial.
03.04.2015 Human Rights Center "Viasna" demands that the Parliament repeal Article 411 of the Criminal Code
Human rights defenders continue to insist that no one should be punished twice for the same action.
02.04.2015 Supreme Court: cases concerning execution of death penalty are beyond our jurisdiction
Volha Hrunova, the mother of the executed Homel resident Aliaksandr Hrunou, has received a reply from the Supreme Court to her supervisory appeal. The woman has been trying to achieve a change in the legislation which currently prohibits informing the relatives of the executed about the place of their burial or issue their bodies.
02.04.2015 Why are people dying in temporary detention?
As a rule, employees of temporary detention facilities (TDF), where administrative detainees and those sentenced to administrative arrest are kept, question the detainees about the state of their health with the aim to identify the illnesses and provide emergency medical care.
02.04.2015 Svetlahorsk investigator refuses to see arbitrariness of the local police
“Who am I complaining to?” - that's the question asked to the regional prosecutor by the mother of Aliaksandr Akulich who died in the pre-trial prison of Svetlahorsk District Police Department. Despite the numerous inspections in this case, the contradictions in the testimonies of the police guards, pointed at by human rights defenders and the court, are ignored by the investigator Viachaslau Petachenka.
02.04.2015 Police again scare residents of Homel region with Romany
Human rights defenders Maryia Klimovich and Ales Yauseyenka have repeatedly raised the problem of discrimination against Roma in the media, where they are often referred to as potential criminals and citizens are warned against contacts with them.
01.04.2015 Amnesty International publishes Death Penalties and Executions 2014
This report covers the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December 2014. Amnesty International reports only on executions, death sentences and other aspects of the use of the death penalty, such as commutations and exonerations, where there is reasonable confirmation.
25.03.2015 Human rights defenders urge Minister of Internal Affairs to monitor threats to Leanid Sudalenka
A number of Belarusian human rights defenders have sent an appeal to the Minister of the Interior urging him to take charge of the investigation into a case of repeated threats against human rights activist in Homel Leanid Sudalenka.
24.03.2015 Ales Bialiatski: Open letter by political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok reveals the terrible truth
The head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" commented on his Facebook public page on the appeal published today by political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok.
23.03.2015 Prosecutor’s Office orders to investigate threats to human rights activist and his children
Today, March 23, human rights activist Leanid Sudalenka was interviewed by a police inspector of the Chyhunachny district police department of Homel Andrei Padsasonny. He learned that the City Prosecutor’s Office had quashed a decision not to open a criminal investigation into the threats to the human rights defenders and his children and demanded that the police took all measures possible to identify the IP-address of those who disseminated the information.
17.03.2015 Court in Mahiliou dismisses suit to close human rights NGO
The Mahiliou Regional Court resumed today the consideration of a lawsuit filed by the Main Department of Justice of the Mahiliou Regional Executive Committee to close down the public association “Mahiliou Human Rights Center” (MHRC). As a result, the court ruled to dismiss the suit by mutual agreement of the parties.
