Political confrontation in Ivatsevichy

Kazimir Karzhyneuski, a member of the United Civil Party from the village of Liubishchytsy in the Ivatsevichy district, addressed the Ivatsevichy district prosecutor with a request to check the legality of the court verdict concerning his administrative case.

Mr. Karzhyneuski was fined 350,000 rubles for alleged hooliganism – hitting his fellow villager Vasil Hladun in the face. Lawyer and human rights defender Uladzimir Malei considers the court verdict as unlawful. To his mind, the court ignored an important circumstance: Hladun has a habit of assaulting people – he had inflicted heavy injuries to one man with a knife, and killed another one this way, for which he had spent 14 years in prison.

Prior to the conflict with Karzhyneuski, an administrative case was instigated against Hladun because of a fight with the head of the local agricultural cooperative.

According to Karzhyneuski, Vasil Hladun had a strong dissent against his activism including collection of signatures in support of the presidential candidate Uladzimir Niakliayeu, and always called him  “Niakliayeu's freak”. Once he always burst at Karzhyneuski with a knife, after which the latter had to apply to the police. Hladun's face wasn't smashed that day, and he didn't say to the police inspector that somebody had beaten him.

However, instead of punishing the recidivist, the local “justice” decided to fine the opposition activist.

Human Rights Chronicle