News on the topic: political persecution
10.02.2011 KGB officers pay interests to duty documents of lawyer Aleh Aheyeu
At about 11 a.m. on 10 February KGB officers paid a visit to the legal consultation of Aleh Aheyeu, the attorney of the presidential candidate Aliaksei Mikhalevich. they presented an order signed by the Minsk and Minsk Region KGB Department and started looking though the documents that concerned the professional activities of the lawyer. They refused to tell the lawyer within the limits of which process activities the check-up of his documents was conducted and soon went away.
08.02.2011 Dzmitry Uss is forced to testify against Mikalai Statkevich
On 4 February the former presidential candidate Dzmitry Uss was summonsed for the fourth interrogation within the framework of the ‘mass riot’ criminal case.
08.02.2011 Interrogations continue
On 7 February the presidential candidate Uladzimir Niakliayeu was taken to KGB from his house (where he is kept under home arrest). He was interrogated for about an hour. His attorney, Tamara Sidarenka, refused to tell any details because the lawyers of figurants of the 'mass riot' case gave written undertakings not to disclose the information related to the case.
03.02.2011 Authorities try to identify all participants of 19 December protest action
Andrei Mikalayeu, who is involved in a criminal case initiated by the KGB after the events on 19 December, has been called to the military counter-intelligence office.
02.02.2011 Dzmitry Drozd becomes a suspect in 'mass riot' case
At about 7 a.m. on 1 February law-enforcement officers entered the apartment of Dzmitry Drozd, a member of the electoral team of Andrei Sannikau, and took him for an interrogation at the Tsentralny District Police Department of Minsk.
02.02.2011 Young Front activist Nasta Palazhanka is left in custody
On 2 February the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk considered the complaint of Nasta's attorney against the restraint to her. According to Palazhanka's father, the court turned the complaint down and ruled that she should be kept in the investigative isolator of KGB.
02.02.2011 Hrodna: students are expelled for participation in post-election protest action
The administration of Hrodna State University started expelling students who had taken part in the protest action of 19 December in Minsk. The first victim became Barys Zakharchuk, a student of the physical-technical faculty.
01.02.2011 Pavel Seviarynets’ mother collects facts of lawlessness to apply to international structures
Tatsiana Seviarynets, the mother of a KGB prisoner Pavel Seviarynets, has to file complains against actions of workers of the investigative isolator of the KGB and against actions of officers of the procuracy in order to get answers to her concrete questions.
01.02.2011 Dashkevich is 'proposed' to testify against other Young Front activists
In one of his last letters to Nasta Loika Zmitser Dashkevich wrote about receiving such a proposal during his second interrogation concerning the events of 19 December for the time of his stay at the investigative isolator of the Zhodzina prison. The activist also complains that the guards refused to allow passing him a Bible in the Belarusian language and that he faced obstacles to sending letters.
01.02.2011 Russian citizen Artyom Breus is left in custody
The Belarusain law machinery refused to change the restraint to the Russian citizen Artyom Breus, arrested in connection with the criminal case concerning the 'mass riot' in Minsk on 19 December. This information was distributed by RIA Novosti with reference to a representative of the Russian Embassy, Vadim Gusev.
28.01.2011 Polatsk resident may be extradited for participation in solidarity picket
Polatsk resident Aliaksandr Kalintsau may be deprived of Belarusian residence permit, says local citizenship and migration department.
14.01.2011 Chronicle of searches and interrogations
At 11.30 the search in the apartment of the Minsk activist of Speak Truth Ihar Vinnikau came to an end. The police confiscated his computer, two mobile phones, flash drives and books of poetry by Uladzimir Niakliayeu.
14.01.2011 Andrei Pazniak – 31st accused in ‘mass riot’ case
Resident of Zhodzina Andrei Pazniak, born in 1977, was on the list of people detained after the dispersal of the action at the Independence Square. The court fined Andrei Pazniak 1,050,000 rubles (about $350).
27.12.2010 Valiantsin Stefanovich: “It is essential to expose the means used by investigators”
According to information received by the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, numerous persons have been subjected to harassment in the “mass riots” criminal case. Unidentified representatives of secret services reportedly beat a teenager, putting a bag on his head, forcing him to admit he had been incited to take part in the mass riots by opposition leaders.
11.10.2010 UN: Trial over Mikhail Marynich is political lynching
The UN Human Rights Committee admitted that tortures had been used against Mikhail Marynich.