The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for January 2011

04.01.2011 Search at the apartment of BelSat journalist Ales Barazenka

The apartment of Aliaksandr Barazenka, a journalist for the Polish satellite TV channel BelSat was searched as well. Mr. Barazenka managed to inform the BelSat representative Mikhail Yanchuk about it. According to Mr. Yanchuk, the search at Barazenka’s started at 6 a.m. and lasted for about two hours.

04.01.2011 Search at the apartment of Aliaksandr Piatkevich

A democratic activist Aliaksandr Piatkevich informed human rights defenders about the search that had been conducted by KGB officers in his apartment. A computer and information carriers were confiscated from him as a result.

04.01.2011 Search at human rights defender Nasta Loika’s apartment

At about 12.40 a.m. Nasta’s mother called to her and said that unknown police or KGB officers tried to burst into their apartment to hold a search there. Nasta asked the neighbors to tell them not to break the apartment door till her arrival. Then she came to the house in the company of the human rights defenders Ales Bialiatski, Aleh Hulak and a representative of the Committee of International Control over the situation of human rights in Belarus.

04.01.2011 Arrestee Mikhail Pashkevich has bronchitis

As said by one of the people released from the jail in Akrestsin Street, the civil activist Mikhail Pashkevich who is still kept there has bronchitis.

04.01.2011 Real number of protesters kept in jail in Akrestsin Street was kept in secret

On 3 January the people who had been sentenced to 15 days of arrest for participation in the mass action of protest on 19 December were released from the delinquents’ isolation center in Akrestsin Street.

04.01.2011 Mikalai Statkevich has been on hunger-strike for half a month already

The politician didn’t make any demands, because the sense of his hunger-strike is clear. He wants the election results to be cancelled due to mass falsifications. Mikalai Statkevich is not going to stop his hunger strike, associates of the political prisoner told belaruspartisan.org .

STATEMENT of Human Rights Center <em>Viasna</em> concerning terror campaign towards opposition-minded people

03.01.2011 STATEMENT of Human Rights Center Viasna concerning terror campaign towards opposition-minded people

The Human Rights Center Viasna expresses its strong protest against the beginning of the terror campaign in Belarus towards dissidents and political opponents of the government.

03.01.2011 Reporters Without Borders: Crackdown on media intensifies, KGB raids on media

The crackdown on media that covered the post-election protests on 19 December has been reinforced in the past few days. Members of the Committee for State Security (KGB) have searched the offices of three news media and an opposition party and the homes of two journalists, two human rights activists, two former presidential candidates and four of their advisers since 25 December.

03.01.2011 Homel: KGB wants to ‘talk’ to Statkevich’s electioneering agent Yury Zakharanka

An unidentified KGB officer called to Mr. Zakharanka to invite him for a ‘talk’ as a witness in the case of the ‘mass riot’ that had allegedly taken place in Minsk on 19 December.

03.01.2011 Dzmitry Dashkevich and Eduard Lobau transferred to Zhodzina jail

The Young Front leaders Dzmitry Dashkevich, Dzianis Lazar and Eduard Lobau had been detained on 18 December in Minsk on fabricated charges (Article 339, part 3 of the Criminal Code – malignant hooliganism) and have been kept in jail since then. According to the investigation, the accused ‘have groundlessly and deliberately beaten a man with fists and a crowbar.

03.01.2011 20-year old Nasta Palazhanka is left in KGB jail

The deputy chairperson of the Young Front Nasta Palazhanka stays in jail. The term of her detention in the KGB jail has been prolonged for two months. The deputy chairperson of the Young Front (registered in the Czech Republic) made a speech in the square and said that the youth supported a democratic Belarus where everything was done according to the law and where dictatorship did not exist, reports Arche.

03.01.2011 Ex-presidential candidate Vital Rymasheuski also released under recognizance

On 1 January the presidential candidate Vital Rymasheuski was released from the KGB pre-trial detention centre on a written undertaking not to leave the place. He had also written a letter of explanation to Lukashenka.

03.01.2011 About 150 convicted demonstrators to be released today

As belaruspartizan.org has been informed at the Belarusian Popular Front office, 150 of those who had been imprisoned for participation in the protest action of 19 December 2010 are expected to be released. There are no absolutely exact lists of persons under arrest, but according to preliminary information, 103 persons are to be released from the jail in Zhodzina, 28 persons are to be discharged from the delinquents’ isolation center in Akrestsin Street and 7 girls are to be released from the pre-trial prison of the Minsk district.

03.01.2011 Andrei Dzmitryieu released from KGB jail under recognizance not to leave

Andrei Dzmitryieu, the head of the campaign team of the presidential candidate Uladzimir Niakliayeu, has been released from the KGB jail this morning on his own recognizance.

03.01.2011 Russian citizen Ivan Gaponov is kept in pre-trial prison in Valadarski Street

Ivan Gaponov is a citizen of the Russian Federation living in Belarus. He was sentenced to 10 days of arrest for participation in the protest action of 19 December. In the evening of 29 December he was released from jail together with other Russian citizens. He came home and managed to spend one hour there, after which there came two police officers who told that he was a suspect in the criminal case concerning the alleged mass riot on 19 December. As a result, Ivan was interrogated in presence of the duty barrister, after which he was taken back to Akrestsin Street jail. There he had a meeting with the Russian consul on 31 December.