The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for October 2013

08.10.2013 “Eurapeiski Vybar” newspaper confiscated from Ales Tarnahurski

Last week the activist of the campaign “Together for Belarus” Ales Tarnahurski was detained at the central market of Dziarzhynsk. According to forbelarus.org, he handed out the newspaper “Eurapeiski Vybar” (“European Choice”) among passers-by.

08.10.2013 Pavel Seviarynets visited by Biaroza activists

Biaroza human rights defenders Siarzhuk Rusetski and Tamara Shchapiotkina and social activist Anatol Sakharusha paid a visit to political prisoner Pavel Seviarynet, co-chairman of the party “Belarusian Christian Democracy”, whose term of personal restraint ends on 19 October.

07.10.2013 Human rights defender Uladzimir Malei dedicated his marathon to Ales Bialiatski (photos)

Malaryta human rights defender Uladzimir Malei dedicated a ten-kilometer marathon to the freedom of the head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Ales Bialiatski. He came to the 30th jubilee marathon which took place in Malaryta wearing a T-shirt with a portrait of Ales Bialiatski and the inscription “Freedom to Bialiatski!” Uladzimir Malei took the third prize place in his age group.

07.10.2013 Vitsebsk: Barys Khamaida detained again

Vitsebsk activist, distributor of independent press Barys Khamaida was taken to the Chyhunachny District Police Department of Vitsebsk, allegedly for unauthorized picketing. However, he was released without getting any charges.

07.10.2013 Trial on Labkovich's case postponed again

On 7 October at the Savetski District Court of Minsk the member of the Council of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Uladzimir Labkovich was informed that the trial would take place tomorrow and start at 9 a.m. This is already the fourth postponement of the trial.

07.10.2013 Ales Bialiatski to write memoirs about Viktar Ivashkevich

Natallia Pinchuk, the wife of the political prisoner, head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski , had a telephone talk with her husband. Bialiatski is currently serving 4.5 years of imprisonment in Babruisk penitentiary No. 2. According to Natallia Pinchuk, her husband found about the death of his close friend and colleague Viktar Ivashkevich from the newspapers.

07.10.2013 Khotsimsk: another application for a picket against foreign military airbases

Last week Khotsimsk activists of the Belarusian Popular Front filed another appeal to the Khotsimsk District Executive Committee to hold a picket against the deployment of the foreign military airbases on the territory of Belarus.

07.10.2013 Priest Aliaksandr Shramko: “Death penalty contradicts the Gospel”

The Orthodox priest Aliaksandr Shramko, who serves in the church of St. Archangel Michael in the Sukharava neighbourhood in Minsk, reflects on the reasons to abolish the death penalty.

07.10.2013 “Death penalty. Indifference kills”

“No enemy is worse than indifference! All mischief takes place with the tacit consent of the indifferent."

07.10.2013 “Last Dawn” as an opportunity to share one's position on the death penalty

The rock concert “Last Dawn”, dedicated to the issue of the use of the death penalty in Belarus, was held on 5 October in Bialystok. Thanks to the online broadcasting, it was wathced by thousands of Belarusians, regardless the border between Poland and Belarus, the "black lists" of the musicians who took part in the concert, and a ban on the discussion of the topic of the death penalty in the public space in Belarus.

07.10.2013 Application for a picket against the death penalty filed in Vitsebsk

The application was filed to the Chyhunachny District Executive Committee of Vitsebsk by the human rights defender Leanid Svetsik who intends to hold the picket to hold a discussion with Vitsebskers concerning the ongoing use of the death penalty in Belarus.

06.10.2013 Hrodna ideologists to examine Karbalevich's book about Lukashenka for extremism

Salihorsk citizen Aliaksandr Malochka received information from the head of the Ashmiany customs office about the appointment of a customs examination on the book which was seized from him at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border on 14 September, “Aliaksandr Lukashenka. Political Portrait” by Valery Karbalevich.

06.10.2013 Hrodna City Executive Committee issues a “cynic” picket ban

Hrodna City Executive Committee once again prohibited the human rights defenders Uladzimir Khilmanovich, Raman Yurhel and Viktar Sazonau to hold an informational picket. The activists intended to hold a picket against the death penalty on 10 October, the World Day against the Death Penalty, and inform the citizens about this issue.

06.10.2013 Brest authorities ignore the demand to repair the road in the neighbourhood of Rechytsa

Residents of this neighborhood have collected about 300 signatures to achieve the improvement of Rechytskaya and Sonechnaya streets, the repair of which has been promised by the local authorities for almost ten years.

06.10.2013 Mahiliou policeman works dishonestly

In Mahiliou, police officer Kavaliou forged a report according to which the social activist Natallia Samakhvalava allegedly refused to meet with him to testify conerning her appeal to the Presidential Administration.