UN Human Rights Committee registered complaints of Belarusian citizens

The UN Human Rights Committee registered a complaint of five participants of the action that was held in 2009 in front of the Homel Region Police Department to mark the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of the former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka. According to the human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka, the Committee officially informed the authors of the complaint about it.

Bear in mind that on 7 May 2009 the democratic activist of Mahiliou held a ‘chain of concerned people’ in front of the Homel Regional Police Department. The Tsentralny District Court of Homel sentenced Piatro Kuzniatsou, Vasil Paliakou, Anatol Paplauny and Yury Zakharanka to huge fines, and Uladzimir Katsora was sentenced to three days of arrest.

’Now the government of Belarus will have to explain what for the picket participants had been punished, and whether their punishment corresponds to the international undertakings of the country to respect the freedom of expression and peaceful assemblies,’ – says the human rights defender.

Mr. Sudalenka also reminded that these days the UN Human Rights Committee also registered the individual communication of the Svetlahorsk activist Sviatlana Mikhalchanka who addressed the Committee after the Svetlahorsk District Court had imposed on hear an enormous fine in 2009 for distributing the Levy Marsh newspaper in the town.