Uladzimir Katsora requires MIA and the Office of the Prosecutor General to bring a criminal case

On 8 October Homel activist Uladimir Katsora, the leader of the Conference “For honest and fair elections for a better life" filed a statement about a criminal offence committed by a policeman to the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General of Belarus.

On 22 September on the road Homel-Minsk the traffic police detained a private minibus, in which there were the delegates of the Republican conference for the establishment of the coalition " For honest and fair elections for a better life".

Uladzimir Katsora has already addressed similar demands to the Homel Regional Police Department and the Homel Regional Prosecutor's Office – the delegates demanded to conduct ann official investigation in order to determine the duty offficial who ordered the harassment and bring a criminal case against this official and the police officers.

However, he received usual come-offs from the both instances: “The prosecutor's office proposed the regional police department to give an answer. The regional police department, unable to invent an independent explanation for the unlawful actions of the police, and proposed the Rechytsa District Police Department to give an answer, which informed us that “no objective evidence of the described facts was found". In fact, the police colonel approved the participation of police officers in persecution of political opponents of the government, thus concealing the fact of the criminal offense, committed by the police," says the activist. He does not believe in the possibility of an objective investigation of the case and therefore intends to apply to the court.

As previously reported, a police major Ihar Lapatsin and a captain Siarhei Vasilchuk initially explained the reasons for stopping the minibus by saying that it resembled of a bus which had taken part in a car accident. After the vehicle and the delegates were taken to the Rechytsa DPD, the police changed their versions and said they needed to take fingreprints from thhe driver of the minibus.

After the police made shure that the fingerprints had been taken from the driver earlier, they demanded that he be shot on video. In the end , the police started pushing unfounded claims to the number of the vehicle body and released the driver after three hours of detention without giving him any charges or composing any process documents.

"As a result of the unreasonable hindrance on the part of the police officers, the delegates were unable to attend the Republican Conference in Minsk, thus their actions constitute a criminal offense under Article 194 of the Criminal Code , namely," impeding the lawful activities of public associations or interference with their legitimate activities which entail a serious breach of their rights and legitimate interests," writes the politician in his appeal.