Brest: picket bans are appealed at court
Viktar Chaikouski, Deputy Chairman of the national
public association “Perspective”, applied to the Brest City Executive Committee
for the authorization of a series of pickets aimed at turning public attention
to the use of articles of the Criminal Code by the authorities with the aim to
neutralize civil and public activists. The actions were to be held in different
parts of the city under the slogans “Freedom to political prisoners! Stop
torture and harassment!”
However, the Brest authorities refused to authorize the actions, stating that
it wasn't allowed to hold such actions in the specified places, and the
organizers failed to conclude service agreements with police, medics and public utilities.
As a result, Viktar Chaikouski, human rights defender Raman Kisliak, the Brest
coordinator of the “Perspective” Uladzimir Katrych and Zmitser Shurkhai, the
Brest coordinator of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian
Democracy Party, appealed against the ban at the Leninski District Court of
Brest.
According to Mr. Kisliak, the places that were stated in the application for
pickets, weren't banned for mass actions, that's why the refusal of the city
authorities violated the constitutional right to freedom of expression.
