Zmitser Salauyou complaints to General Procuracy about search
Human rights defender Zmitser Salauyou lodged with the General Procuracy a complaint about actions of the police officers who had searched on 3 May an apartment owned by him.
The search was conducted within the limits of a criminal case instigated under Article 341 of the Criminal Code in connection with appearance of Nazi inscriptions on the walls of Navapolatsk houses. During the search, the police confiscated a computer system unit, flags, books, posters, CDs, etc. According to investigator Ivanenka, the reason for the search was that Belarusian-speaking youth gathered in the apartment.
’In 2008-2009 I thrice applied to the Navapolatsk prosecutor with the demands to instigate a criminal case against the neo-Nazi, who painted swastikas and drew Nazi and anti-Semitic slogans on Navapolatsk houses and other constructions. There were also assaults on the building that belonged to me: unidentified persons and painted a swastika on the wall and injured the roller blind on the window. Photos of the inscriptions were attached to the complaints. The received answers read that there is no corpus delicti in actions of the people who draw swastika, and they weren’t drawn to administrative account as they weren’t identified.
The human rights defender considers as groundless the search in the office that belongs to him and is of the opinion that the fact that the people who gather there speak in the Belarusian language cannot serve as a reason for holding searches.
Being guided by the aforesaid, Zmitser Salauyou demands that the General Procuracy of Belarus hold a check-up on the fact set forth in the complaint and putting an end to the haunting of people on linguistic grounds (those who are speaking in Belarusian) and direct the efforts of the appropriate agencies on looking for the real criminals-neo-Nazis.
On 3 March the Human Rights Center Viasna issued a public statement where it expressed its decisive protest, urged the authorities to stop the unmotivated harassment of the human rights defenders and immediately return to him the confiscated property and started searching for the real perpetrators.
