Administrative Case against Barys Khamaida and Alena Zaleskaya Returned for Revision

On 4 March in Vitsebsk an administrative commission considered the administrative case against the local activists Barys Khamaida and Alena Zaleskaya, who were detained on 25 February in the city center during an action in the memory of Iryna Kazulina, Aliaksandr Kazulin’s wife.

Khamaida and Zaleskaya were handing out leaflets about the refusal of the authorities to temporary release Kazulin for the funeral. They also lit candles. After the detention the activists were guarded to Chyhunachny district court of Vitsebsk. Barys Khamaida demanded an interpreter into Belarusian, that’s why the trial was postponed to 4 March.

The judge Ala Bardziukova considered the case and did not find any corpus delicti in the defendants’ actions. She did not justify Khamaida and Zaleskaya, but sent the police reports back to Chyhunachny district police department, for revision or liquidation. She did not appoint the date of the next sitting on the case and did not put down the activists’ addresses. Barys Khamaida thinks that this case will have no continuation.