Analytical review of first sitting on criminal case of Aliaksandr Atroshchankau, Dzmitry Novik and Aliaksandr Malchanau

On 1 March 2011 the trial of the participants of the peaceful action of 19 December 2010 Aliaksandr Atroshchankau, Dzmitry Novik and Aliaksandr Malchanau started at the Frunzenski District Court of Minsk.

The court hall houses 56 persons (whereas the police said there were just 34 seats). Taking photos and videos was prohibited, that’s why the press left the court hall.

The trial is lead by Judge Tatsiana Cherkas with participation of the senior prosecutor of Minsk Volasava and attorneys Bylina, Sankovich and Mushynski.

The sitting started with the identification of the accused. The court also considered a written motion entered by the civil plaintiff, an officer of the Main Economic Council of the Presidential Administration Dzmitry Lepesh. According to the motion, he asked to consider the case in his absence. The court also received the refusal of the plaintiff from the claims, as the material damage had been compensated. Having asked the sides about their opinions on this matter, the judge went out to the conference room to take a decision. In some time she granted the withdrawal of the civil claim and stopped the civil proceedings within the framework of the criminal case.

Neither of the sides made oral motions during the sitting. However, earlier the judge received a written motion from Dzmitry Novik, in which he asked about changing the restraint to a non-leave undertaking. The prosecutor didn’t support the motion because ‘the restraint was chosen in conformity with the law’. At 10.55 the judge returned to the court hall after a break and declined the motion.

At about 11 p.m. the court investigation started: the prosecutor read the accusation given to each of the youngsters.

Aliaksandr Malchanau was charged with having torn down two state flags from the KGB building in Nezalezhnastsi Street, 17, Minsk, being in inebriated state, thus violating Article 370 of the Criminal Code (further referred to as CC) (‘outrage of the state symbols’), and also with having knocked out the entrance doors of the House of the Government by previous concert with Novik, Atroshchankau and some unidentified persons (they hit the doors at least two times with his fists and at least two times with his feet and took other active actions to penetrate the building), which falls under provisions of Article 293, part 2 of the CC, ‘mass riot’ – direct participation in the mass riot, which was accompanied with violent actions and disobedience.

Dzmitry Novik was charged with having taken part in the mass riot on 19 and 20 December 2010 in Minsk by previous concert with Atroshchankau, Malchanau and unidentified persons. In particular, he damaged the entrance doors of the House of the Government (he delivered at least 21 blows with his fists and feet and took other active actions to penetrate the building), which falls under provisions of Article 293, part 2 of the CC.

According to the accusation, Aliaksandr Atroshchankau, together with a disorderly crowed, by concert with Novikau, Malchanau and other unidentified persons, took part in mass riot accompanied with armed resistance. In particular, he delivered at least one blow and took other active actions falling under provisions of Article 293, part 2 of the CC.

After this the judge asked each of the accused whether they understood the essence of the presented charges and whether they confessed their guilt. Aliaksandr Malchanau completely confessed his guilt, Dzmitry Novik confessed the guilt partially and Aliaksandr Atroshchankau pleaded innocent.

At 11.08 a.m. the questioning of Aliaksandr Malchanau started. He explained that he had come from Barysau together with his acquaintances in order to take part in the peaceful action about which he had learned from mass media. He didn’t receive any personal invitations to the demonstration, but considered it as necessary to take part in it, because he didn’t agree with the policy of the incumbent president. A.Malchanau removed two state flags with flagpoles from the KGB building and threw them on the stairs. He characterized it as a hooligan deed and said that he did it because he felt euphoria from the circumstances. Then he started moving towards the Nezalezhnastsi Square. On the way there he climbed atop a snow loader in order to see how many people came to the demonstration. He also waived there a white-red-white flag several times. In some time he came towards the monument to Lenin near the House of the Government. There he saw that a group of people went out of the crowd and moved towards the entrance of the House of the Government. He followed them. When the people started smashing the doors and the window of the building, he came to the door and delivered several blows on the doors, but didn’t damage anything. Having heard a cry ‘Provocation!’ he went away and returned to the doors when the windows were smashed and the doors were opened. He delivered two blows on the wooden partitions of the doors and removed the last splinter of glass from the window so that nobody would be injured. He didn’t damage the participants either. He said that he didn’t understand the sense of his actions and explained it with the ‘effect of the crowd’. He followed the call of Vital Rymasheuski, stopped his actions, went away from the door and returned into the crowd. In some time he left for Barysau. He regrets his actions and considers them a mistake. Being asked additional questions, he explained that he wasn’t drunk and just drank little beer in the afternoon. He refused previous concert with other participants of the action and coordination of his actions by other persons. The questioning lasted for about 40 minutes.

As it was found from the questioning of Aliaksandr Atroshchankau, he wasn’t acquainted with Malchanau and saw Novik once in September 2010, when the latter had met with him and asked about the economic program of Andrei Sannikau. Atroshchankau explained that he was the press secretary of Andrei Sannikau and accompanied him at the demonstration in order to cover this event as a journalist. He knew that the candidates for president planned to hold an entirely peaceful action and that it wasn’t authorized. During the demonstration at the Kastrychnitskaya Square he stood near the candidates, heard about disagreement with the policy of the incumbent, about manipulation of the election results, but didn’t hear any calls to violent actions. He walked along Nezalezhanstsi Avenue on his own, as he lost the rest in the crowd. Having come to the Nezalezhnastsi Square, he saw a group of 15-20 people near the House of the Government. They were delivering blows on the doors of the building. He didn’t see any items in their hands. He went towards the door in order to see what was happening there and for a short time got into the crowd that was moving towards the doors. He doesn’t consider the events of 19 December as a mass riot, as just a small group of people smashed the windows and there was no armed resistance. Thus, Atroshchankau didn’t deliver blows, and didn’t take an active part in the protests. To additional questions he answered that there were no obstacles to the movement of the crowd along Nezalezhnastsi Avenue, as the movement of the traffic was stopped in advance by the road police. A letter confirming Atroshchankau’s cooperation with international media concerning the coverage of the protest action in Minsk was attached to the case.

Dzmitry Novik, who worked as a driver at the Embassy of the Arab Emirates, explained that he had learned about the action in the Kastrychnitskaya Square from mass media. He moved together with the crowd along Nezalezhnastsi Avenue towards the Nezalezhanstsi Square without any obstacles. The action was entirely peaceful. At the Nezalezhnastsi Avenue he saw that a group of people tried to enter the House of the Government, but was cut away from the stairs by a cordon of the riot police. He didn’t hear any calls to violent actions and felt no aggression in the crowd. When he came to the entrance of the House of the Government, the doors had been knocked out and the windows had been smashed. Novik only delivered several blows on the wooden partitions, but didn’t do any damage to them. In some time he left the demonstration and went away. He insisted on the absence of any previous concert and resistance to the police.

After a break, the questioning of the witnesses, Siarhei Ivanavich Sazonau and Valiantsin Henadzevich Prytyka, Malchanau’s friends, started. During the questioning they said that Malchanau had told them about his intention to go to the 19 December action two weeks before it took place. Sazonau also said that on 20 December he had seen Malchanau who had told him about his participation in the action and showed a video in the internet where he could be seen waiving a white-red-white flag on the roof of a loader.

Vital Siarheyevich Paliakhovich, the officer who had guarded the KGB building that day, was questioned as witness as well. He explained that the exterior video monitoring is conducted from the KGB building. On the video, shot on 19 December, the witness saw a young man removing the flag from the KGB building and putting a white-red-white flag instead. KGB officers put the flag back in some time. The witness also said that he had watched some moments from the windows. There were no fights, no bottles were thrown. He didn’t see the incident with the flag with his own eyes. He only saw it at the video recording from a camera. He could see, not very well, that a youngster removed the state flag and replaced it with a white-red-white flag.

The witness didn’t see any actions towards the state flags. He didn’t notice whether the white-red-white flag was put by the person who removed the state flag. He didn’t see what the demonstrators did to the removed flags.

Then Valiantsin Dzmitryievich Kazyra, a KGB guard, was questioned as witness. On 19 December he had checked the watch posts. He explained that on the videos that had been shot by the cameras from the KGB building he had seen Malchanau remove a flag from one columns and then – from the other one. He threw the first flag on the stairs and tried to break the flagstaff of the other one. Some women of the crowd made a remark about his behavior, after which he put the flags on the stairs and went away. Another youngster hanged up a white-red-white flag on one of the columns. The witness confirmed that the flags weren’t damaged, as in some time KGB officers went out of the KGB building and returned the flags to their place.

Witness Dzianis Valeryievich Antonau, officer of the Main Police Bureau of the Minsk City Executive Committee, shot the action on video on 19 December. He stated that there was no particular aggression in the crowd. It was a usual demonstration. The traffic didn’t move because of the pedestrians. The road police asked them to free the carriage way, but the demonstrators didn’t pay attention to it. He explained that he had seen Atroshchankau. The latter wasn’t in the first row on the stairs of the House of the Government. He didn’t touch the barriers. He swung together with the crowd. The people pushed the doors. He saw Novik, who tried to burst into the House of the Government.  He watched Novik and Atroshchankau simultaneously, but there was coordination between them, they didn’t speak to each other. He didn’t see that something was damaged by actions of Novik and Atroshchankau or somebody was injured by them. Later the police pushed the people away from the House of the Government, lined up in front of it and then went away, as they were given such an order.

Witness Mikalai Aliaksandravich Shalko, a senior expert of the Main Police Bureau of the Minsk City Executive Committee, shot the illegal actions on video. As said by him, there was no traffic movement along Nezalezhanstsi Avenue in the evening of the action, as the road was cordoned by the road police. The witness explained that he had seen Atroshchankau on the stairs of the House of the Government. Atroshchankau was distinguished by his stature and cap. He didn’t stand in the first rows. The people were making something like a human battering-ram. All in all, there were some 1-2 hits of this ram. The witness didn’t see Atroshchankau deliver blows. Novik, as it seems to him, had a photo camera and tried to make photos. In general, there were some 7-10 people who were most active. The situation wasn’t coordinated, everything happened spontaneously. As a result, the doors were broken and the windows were smashed. The witness didn’t see who did it. There were no arsons and armed resistance on 19 December. The witness only saw how demonstrators fobbed off the police with fishing rods.

At 4 p.m. the watching of video materials started. At one of them Malchanau could be seen waiving a white-red-white flag on a snow loader. Later he could be also seen deliver one blow on the doors of the House of the Government.

Atroshchankau’s back could be seen for several seconds on the next video, shot on the stairs of the House of the Government. Aliaksnadr explained that most probably it was him.

Preliminary conclusions:
1. It doesn’t ensue from evidence presented by the investigation that Malchanau, Atroshchankau and Novik had preliminary concert for participation in a mass riot;
2. The accused didn’t do any damage to property by their actions, which is confirmed by testimonies of witnesses – officers of the Main Police Bureau of the Minsk City Executive Committee and KGB.
3. There was no evidence that the accused put up armed resistance to the police.