Mikhail Iliin warned by prosecutor’s office
The activist can face a criminal case for membership in an unauthorized organization. Recently he has been served a warning for it. As RFE/RL reports, he was also summoned to the prosecutor’s office for giving evidence.
On 12 August at 6 p.m., police officers detained Mikhail Iliin, head of Brest branch of Young Front, near his house. He was guarded to the police department where he spent three hours, and then to the prosecutor’s office.
Young Front activists think a criminal case under Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus may be instigated against the guy. This article was added to the Criminal Code in the run-up to the presidential election campaign in 2006.
‘I had a 10-minute ‘preventive conversation’ in the prosecutor’s office, and signed a warning on inadmissibility of violation of the law On Mass Events’, Mikhail Iliin said in an interview to www.mfront.net.: ‘The warning reads that Brest oblast procuracy received information from the KGB that I was an activist of Young Front, unregistered organization.’
Four activists of Partnership” organization and the Young Front leader Zmitser Dashkevich were sentenced to prison terms for membership in unregistered organizations, and nine Young Front activists were fined for it.
Bear in mind that human rights activists call Article 193-1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (organizing activity of a public association that wasn’t registered in the order established by the law) unconstitutional. The world community also says that activity of NGOs shouldn’t be criminally persecuted if it doesn’t harm society and doesn’t violate the civil rights.
