Detained participants of picket on Svaboda Square got fined
About 20 people took part in the action
that was held on 3 October in Svaboda Square. Nine of them were detained. The
picket was organized by women who fell victims to grave crimes and who disagree
with court decisions in their civil cases and criminal cases against their
relatives. The picketers held posters “Officials must answer”, “Presidential
administration is reliable guard from outrage in the country” and so on.
The women were threatened that they would be sent to a detention facility for
the night and share cells with homeless people, which would make them more
cooperative. Lawyer Tamara Siarhei, one of the detained participants of the
unauthorized picket on Minsk’s Svaboda Square, told BelaPAN she and other
detainees were fined 350,000- 1,050,000 Belarusian rubles.
“We were on the square from 1:00 till 1:20 pm,” Tamara Siarhei says. “Then we
saw how men in mufti and in riot police uniform ran on lawns to us. They
attacked the women, snatched posters out of their hands and pushed them into a
bus. They grabbed a woman born in 1938, former teacher, and threw her into the
bus not waiting till she get into it.
According to the lawyer, the detainees were taken to the Tsentralny district
police department, where they spent 4.5 hours. Police reports on administrative
offices were drawn up under article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative
Offenses (violation of the order of organizing or holding mass events and
pickets). The cases were considered by the Tsentralny district court. Tamara
Siarhei got the biggest fine.
“They demand that we should be
fingerprinted and photographed. People were scared. Only I managed to oppose
police, but I understand the people who broke down under this pressure,” the
lawyer said.
According to Siarhei, policemen threatened to send her to
detention facility where she would spend the night with hobos, which would make
her more cooperative. “They guarded me down the stairs, outside the building
pretending they were going to send me to the detention facility. I was released
at 8:50 pm, 7.5 hours after the detention. How can we speak about legal system,
when men who have power deride women?” Tamara Siarhei said.
