Detentions during flash mobs and for wearing badges are absolutely illegal and are used as a means of government pressure on the activists, the human rights fighters consider.
May 16 was a day of solidarity with the families of the disappeared and politically imprisoned. After the actions SWAT detained 18 people. Among them are: Andrei Zorka, Mihas Naskou, Liuda Atakulava, Aliaksandr Kurbatski, Mikita Shytsiankou, Katsiaryna Dziatkouskaia, Nasta Shashkova, Zmitser Kniha, Zmitser Kumishcha, Andrei Presnik, Pavel Zhurpal, Aliaksandr Stsepanenka, Mikalai Siarheenka, Maksim Hrychuha, Ira Iankelevich, Aliaksandr Korban, Barysevich, A. Dareuski. The detained were released after documents checking.
Human Rights Center Viasna lawyer Ales Kalita comments on the situation:
The Belarusian officias met new ways of non-violent resistance, flash mobs and days of solidarity among them. From juridical point of view neither solidarity days nor flash mobs have the corpus delicti. They also are out of the law of mass street actions. The concept of mass actions includes the meeting, street rally, demonstration, picketing. All these imply some necessary elements, such as public discussion and expressing one’s opinion of the government actions, organization actions, social life events and questions of social interest. As is seen, none of the held flash mobs and solidarity days included such moments which makes them absolutely legal.
Still the government is teased by the social opposition and one of the ways of pressure is detention of flash mobers and cheking their documents. It should be mentioned that according to part 2, article 13 of The Law of Police a policeman may check documents of a person suspected in some law violation. The policemen may also detain a person and hold him/her in some special departments for administrative law violations for their personality identification, report drawing up, when the questions are impossible to solve on place during three hours.
So the detentions after flash mobs or badges wearing are absolutely illegal and used by the officials as a way of pressure on social activists.
