Fines of 10 basic units for picket in memory of Kalinouski

Three administrative cases were heard in Svislach on November 23 for taking part in a picket to commemorate participants of the 1863 uprising.

Poet Anatol Valyuk was the first to be fined. Judge Zhanna Salahubik refused to hear witnesses in his case because they were defendants in similar cases.  

The video taken by police during the picket wasn't show at the trial this time. Anatol Valyuk claims he wasn't on the video. He was in fact fined for being in the town on that day, Viasna human rights centre reports.

Judge Salahubik heard two similar cases against Viktar Szesyatik, the head of the Svislach unit of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party, and Yury Hlebik, a member of the educational organization Leu Sapeha Foundation. Both were fined 10 basic units.

It should be reminded that people from different Belarusian towns arrived in Svislach on October 27 to commemorate participants of the uprising led by Kalinouski. Democratic activists laid flowers to the grave of Viktar Kalinouski, monuments to Kastus Kalinouski and Romuald Traugutt and visited the village of Yakushouka.

Policemen detained four young people in Svislach and drew up police reports for an unsanctioned procession and using unregistered symbols.