The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for 7 Apr 2011

07.04.2011 Vitsebsk prosecutor is required to stop unlawful prosecution of Siarhei Kavalenka

Siarhei Kavalenka, activist of the Conservative-Christian Party Belarusian Popular Front was hospitalized from jail because of problems with his heart. His comrade Barys Khamaida addressed the city prosecutor with the demand to stop the unlawful prosecution of the activist aimed at spoiling his health, breaking him as a person and doing harm to his pregnant wife and 6-year-old son.

07.04.2011 Hrodna: Katsiaryna Herasimchyk fined for graffiti

On 6 April the trial of Katsiaryna Herasimchyk ended at the Leninski District Court of Hrodna.

07.04.2011 Hrodna: journalist Andrei Pachobut imprisoned

Andrei Pachobut, a journalist with Gazeta Wyborcza, is imprisoned in the temporary detention facility at the Kastrychnitski District Police Department of Hrodna, where he had been placed at night. The measure of restraint for him has been changed.

07.04.2011 Belarusian authorities don’t want any independent investigation into 19 December events

The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs refuses to assist an independent investigation of the events within the frames of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism.

07.04.2011 KGB searches apartment of Natallia Radzina’s parents

Local KGB officers and an investigator from Minsk visited Natallia Radzina’s parents at home in Kobryn. They searched the house and seized the journalist’s notebooks, letters of solidarity from around the world, including the ones she got from the former Czech president Vaclav Havel and the Foreign Minister of Slovakia, Mikuláš Dzurinda. They also seized a computer of Natallia Radzina’s minor nephew.

07.04.2011 Prison guards refuse to accept medicines for Zmitser Bandarenka

The state of health of Zmitser Bandarenka, a European Belarus coordinator, who has spent more than 3 months in the KGB jail already, is disturbing.

07.04.2011 Anatol Liabedzka released from KGB jail

Accoridng to his son, Artsiom, on 6 April evening the leader of the United Civil Party Anatol Liabedzka was released from the KGB pre-trial prison on a written recognizance not to leave. He spent almost three months in jail. Now he is taking part in the meeting of the UCP National Committee.

07.04.2011 Biaroza: journalist Tamara Shchapiotkina banned to come out because of Lukashenka’s visit

According to preliminary information, Lukashenka will visit the silicate plant bought by businessman Yury Chyzh for 380 million rubles a few years ago and he may also visit the district hospital. Then the state leader will play hockey in the Ice Palace.

07.04.2011 Runaway youth activist works as builder in Russia to survive

Mikita Krasnou, former leader of the democratic organization Free Youth and one of the leaders of the Citizen campaign, has experienced the burden of this forced escape from Belarus. KGB searched the apartments of his parents, grandmother and girlfriend at the end of December and he was named as a suspect in the criminal case on “mass riot”. Then he decided to leave Belarus as soon as possible and left for Russia and then for Lithuania.

07.04.2011 Constitutional Court considers the correspondence of Pole’s card to international law

The appeal was sent to the Constitutional Court by the Belarusian MPs who discussed “the Polish issue” after the 19 December events. Bear in mind that Aliaksandr Lukashenka accused the official Warsaw of preparing a coup d'etat in Belarus after the election.