Baranavichy: prosecutor's office is required to discriminated in the case of the Milavidy festival

Baranavichy human rights defenders and social activists are outraged at the biased and hasty decision of Judge Katsiaryna Hruda. On 6 August they filed a collective complaint to the prosecutor's office in the administrative case of Viktar Syrytsa.

As we have already reported, the activist was accused of preparing and holding an unauthorized rally near the monuments in Milavidy on 2 June and was sentenced to a fine of2 million rubles.

In the joint statement to the prosecutor's office, signed by ten persons, it is stated that the court twice returned the violation report, with which Viktar Syrytsa strongly disagreed, back to the police, due to the discovered defects. When the violation protocol was passed to the court for the third time, Judge Katsiaryna Hruda, assigned to this case by the head of the court, hastily issued an accusative verdict to Mr. Syrytsa without discriminating in the circumstances of the case.

The authors of the letter to the prosecutor's office write that they took part in the trip to the Milavidy monuments on 2 July on invitation of the state-owned newspaper "Nash Krai" and witnessed that no official events announced by the newspaper were actually held at the specified time, 12.30 a.m. on 2 June. They composed an appropriate act about it, which was ignored by the court. It is also stated, that though police major Vital Kuliashou and an officer of the Baranavichy District Executive Committee Dz. Varvashenia were present in Milavidy and knew that the official event was canceled, they didn't warn the people about it. Therefore, the complainants inform the prosecutor that they suffered not only a financial loss, but also felt cheated and humiliated in Milavidy.

The complaint also notes that Judge Katsiaryna Hruda pretended that she did not understand the words of police major Kuliashou, who admitted in response to questions of Syrytsa's councel, that there was no unauthorized rally in Milavidy on 2 June. He also confirmed at court that there were no violations of the public order and anti-state calls there.

The authors of the complaint state that as soon as it became clear that no official event would be held, Viktar Syrytsa said the present people they could come to the monuments, lay down flowers, take photos and then get on their bus and drive to the headquarters of the Belarusian Language Society in the village of Rusiny in order to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the battle of Milavidy there.

Therefore, the complainants ask the inter-district prosecutor to check up the court materials and issue a protest against the hasty and actually rigged and biased decision, which is not based on the case materials.

A similar complaint was filed by Viktar Syrytsa, who asks the prosecutor to draw to the legal account the officials who staged this provocation, while he just organized the trip of amateurs of history of culture to the Milavidy festival on invitation of the state-owned newspaper.