Zhodzina authorities continue investigation into assault on the apartment of the regional HRC Viasna activists Sviatlana and Aliaxei Lapitskis

Administrative and criminal proceedings have been initiated to investigate the case.
The criminal action was brought to investigate the firing on the window and damage caused to the property.
This is the information provided by the deputy head of Zhodzina MDIA Police Captain Iahorau. The case was initiated by terms of Article 175, 176, 166, 167 of the Criminal Procedures Code of Belarus to investigate the crime provided by Part 1 of Article 339 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus”.
The administrative case was initiated because cans full of red-brown and black paint had been thrown at the windows which resulted in the staining and damage to the window of the office.
Thus, the authorities institutes an administrative and a criminal case to investigate the assault on the apartment of Aliaxei Lapitski in Zhodzina. But the firing episode was singled out into a separate criminal case though the criminals' actions had been planned and interconnected.
Aliaxei Lapitski does not see much promise in these cases: “What is quite possible in our case is that the "breakdown" of the case (into an administrative and a criminal part) of the interconnected actions of the same group in Zhodzina may lead to a situation, where the administrative case will be automatically closed, and no people, as it always happens, will be brought to criminal justice for firing on the window. We should not forget that the recent attacks occurred in response to the information published by the independent media regarding the case won by the Belarusian language speakers, the first important victory of the Constitutionally-envisaged Right overall. Thus, as a result of this victory Zhodzina Executive Committee had to cancel its “wrong” decision to shut down in 2004 the only Belarusian language class in the entire city of Zhodzina (with a population of 60 thousand people) and arrange for Belarusian language instruction even for one 9-year old Ianka Lapitski”.