Salihorsk authorities ban anti-torture picket

Aliaksandr Rymasheuski, chair of Salihorsk town executive committee, has ruled to ban a picket against torture reportedly used against the imprisoned Young Front leader Zmitser Dashkevich.

The official ban refers to the applicants’ failure to meet the requirements of Par. 6 Art. 5 of the Mass Events Code.

Local Young Front activist say the most outrageous thing about the decision was not the ban itself, but the absence of a substantiated response. Referring to the application’s failure to meet a certain provision of the law, the officials fail to specify what particular violations committed, while there was no violations, at all, say the activists.

Par. 6 Art. 5 of the Mass Events Code requires that a written obligation of holding a picket should be attached to the application, which was done by the Young Front activists.     

“Considering the fact that none of the opposition-related mass events in the town has been authorized since the beginning of the year, no other decision could have been expected. However, the residents of Salihorsk will anyway learn about the torture used against political prisoners and other inmates in Belarusian prisons. We will do our best to do it,” says Young Front activist Andrei Tychyna.