Intimidation of youth activists continues

The prosecutor’s office is set to demand Mikhail Illin from Brest to provide explanations concerning his activities in the Young Front.

Mikhail Illin is summoned to the prosecutor’s office of Brest oblast on 5 August, to give explanations concerning violation of the law On public associations.

It is stated in the writ signed by the prosecutor on legislative execution supervision, senior legal advisor A.Punko.

‘The summoning to the prosecutor for giving explanations could be the first step for bringing up a criminal action under notorious Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code. But it is possible that it is just a new attempt to intimidate young activists,’ Mikhail Illin said in an interview to mfront.net.

The summons is written in an indiscriminate way. It is not stated there in which capacity the Young Front activist is summoned. Besides, the paper was thrown in a postbox, not handed in to Mikhail Illin, so he is not going to visit the prosecutor’s office.

As the Young Front activist said, it is the second writ: the first one was received on 22 June, but Illin was outside Belarus then.

Human rights activists call Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (‘organizing a public association which hadn’t been registered by the state in accordance with the established procedure’) unconstitutional. The world community also stated that activities of informal associations shouldn’t be criminally liable, when they do no harm to the society and do not violate citizens’ rights.