24.08.2009 FIDH expert comments on Viasna’s case (continued)

Kirill Koroteev, Mission Delegate of the International Federation for Human Rights, has commented on the case of the Human Rights Center Viasna, facing repeated refusals by the state registration bodies, as well as the situation in the field of Belarusian NGOs, in general. Mr.Koroteev attended the consideration of Viasna’s complaint at the Supreme Court on 12-17 August 2009, calling the final verdict a disgrace of Belarusian justice.

24.08.2009 Russian HR activist not allowed to enter Belarus

Nikolai Zboroshenko, Chair Assistant of the Moscow Helsinki Group, was not allowed to enter Belarus as he was crossing the Lithuania-Belarus border due to a travel ban. The ban must have been caused by Mr.Zboroshenko’s detention during a protest demonstration in 2006.

24.08.2009 Kalinouski education program student banned to leave Belarus

Belarusian board guards have not allowed Nadzeya Krapivina, participant of the Kastus Kalinouski Belarus-Poland student education program, to leave Belarus referring to a travel ban, Radio Racyja reports. However, they failed to provide explanations for the decision.

24.08.2009 Supreme Court ignores appeal by human rights activists

The Belarusian Human Rights House and the Human Rights House Foundation have received a reply to their appeal to the Supreme Court of Belarus. The official letter signed by Deputy Chair of the Supreme Court Valery Vyshkevich left the appeal without reply saying that the claimants ‘are not legally interested persons’ under the Civil Procedural Code of Belarus.

24.08.2009 New Life church believers continue opposing building seizure

Members of the New Life Protestant Church keep opposing church building seizure by the city authorities, this time obstructing an inspection by Minsk city emergency situations service, the BelaPAN news agency reports quoting the church’s lawyer Siarhei Lukanin. The eviction notice was served by the city authorities on 22 August after the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus resolved to seize the church building. However, court officers have not yet visited the church.

24.08.2009 Poster “Communism=Fascism” considered insanitariness

Administrative reports were drawn up against “Young Front” activists Mikalai Dzyamidzenka and Hanna Bunko.

The youth activists held an action on Independence Square in Minsk on August 23 – they fixed a poster “Communism=Fascism” to the monument to Lenin. The young people were detained by militia and guards of the House of Government.

Dzyamidzenka and Bunko were guarded to the Maskouski district militia department of Minsk, where administrative reports on the article “insanitariness” were drawn up against them, Radio Svaboda reports.

24.08.2009 NTV journalist Aleksey Malkov: “Belarusian secret services threatened me openly”

The deported Russian journalist says people in mufti questioned him in a neglected sanatorium in the forest.

We remind that a film crew of the Russian NTV channel, namely journalist Andrei Malkov and camera operator Yury Babenko, was deported from Belarus on August 14. The film crew was making a report about the missing politicians and public activists. The Russian journalist interviewed the wife of parliamentary vice speaker Viktar Hanchar disappeared in 1999 and the wife of journalist Zmitser Zavadski, who disappeared in 2000. The international community accuses a number of high-ranking Belarusian officials from Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s inner circle of their involvement in the kidnapping.