The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for April 2012

17.04.2012 Vitsebsk pro-dem activists appeal Freedom Day meeting ban

A number of Vitsebsk opposition activists have lodged a complaint with Vitsebsk Regional Court’s board for administrative cases, appealing a decision by Vitsebsk Kastrychnitski District Court to uphold a ban on holding a demonstration and a meeting marking the Freedom Day on 25 March.

17.04.2012 Amnesty International urges Belarus to free remaining prisoners of conscience after two released

A decision to release two Belarusian prisoners of conscience including an opposition presidential candidate is a step in the right direction but the government now needs to free five others who have been in jail since 2011, Amnesty International said.

17.04.2012 Vitsebsk opposition activist detained for “precaution talk”

Vitsebsk pro-democratic activist Barys Khamaida was detained by the city’s police last evening, to be later taken for a conversation with chief of Vitsebsk Chyhunachny District Police Department Kanstantsin Adnapalau.

17.04.2012 Andrei Sannikau summoned to police department

Former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau has been summoned to Minsk Pershamaiski District Police Department just three days after his release on 14 April, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.

17.04.2012 Statkevich shares cell with killer from “death squad”

The monitoring group of Platform association managed to get information about confinement conditions for Mikalai Statkevich in a prison in Mahilou.

16.04.2012 Bykhau resident still demands to prosecute policeman for forgery

Aliaksandr Shachanok, resident of Bykhau district, Mahiliou region, has lodged a complaint with Mahiliou Regional Prosecutor’s Office, after his report on police-related forgery was ignored by local police chief Mr. Samusenka.

Valiantsin Stefanovich: Human rights defenders view pressure to force prisoners of conscience to sign petitions for pardon as torture

16.04.2012 Valiantsin Stefanovich: Human rights defenders view pressure to force prisoners of conscience to sign petitions for pardon as torture

“We view their release as the first step by the Belarusian authorities taken as a result of the European Union’s reaction to the situation in the country,” says deputy chair of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich in his comments on the recent release of former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau and his election aide Dzmitry Bandarenka.

15.04.2012 Belarus Opposition Leader Sannikau, Former Aide Freed From Prison

MINSK -- Former Belarusian presidential candidate and leading opposition figure Andrey Sannikau has been released from prison in a surprise move that highlights Minsk's sporadic efforts to respond to Western pressure over persistent rights abuses.

13.04.2012 Political prisoners are swapped

Mikalai Dziadok has been transferred from the Mahiliou colony to the Shklou colony, Artsiom Prakapenka – vice-versa. Relatives are going for a long-term meeting with Aliaksandr Frantskevich. Ihar Alinevich makes inventions at the Navapolatsk colony.

13.04.2012 Statkevich shared cell with a person ill with tuberculosis

The former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich was kept in the same cell with a prisoner who had been ill with tuberculosis, for more than two months. This was found out by his wife Maryna Adamovich.

13.04.2012 Search at apartment of “Young Front” activists

In the morning of 13 April the police searched an apartment which was rented by activists of “Young Front”. When one of them came home, he saw that the windows were opened, their belongings were scattered on the floor, and white-red-white flags and agitation materials disappeared.

13.04.2012 Siarhei Kavalenka stops hunger-strike

RFE/RL learned it from the father of the political prisoner, Aliaksandr Kavalenka, who visited his son in the psychiatric hospital in Minsk.

13.04.2012 Anastasiya Shuleika and Yury Khodus get their belongings back

The activists were detained during the opening of the memorial sign "River of Memory" on 11 April and held in detention during one night. On 12 April the Leninski District Court fined them 2 and 1.5 million rubles for "disorderly conduct" (Article 17.1 of the Code of Administrative Violations).

13.04.2012 Yan Dziarzhautsau proposes authorities to join organization of pickets

Vitsebsk activist of the Conservative-Christian Party "Belarusian Popular Front" Yan Dziarzhautsau filed applications for authorization of 6 more pickets with the three district executive committees of Vitsebsk.

13.04.2012 Court turns down the appeal of Uladzimir Niapomniashchykh

On 12 April Iryna Kavalevich, Judge of the Tsentralny District Court of Homel rejected the appeal of a police pensioner and demoratic activist Uladzimir Niapomniashchykh, who demanded that 9 mln rubles be exacted from the police for 3 days of unlawful detention.