Vitebsk activists to be tried for photos on internet

A police report for violating the legislation on mass events was made against Yan Dziarzhautsau, an activist of the Conservative Christian Party BPF.

Policemen summoned him to the Kastrychnitski district police department to make a report on the offence they had not seen. The police report was made on the ground of the pictures on the internet, Viasna human rights centre informs.

Yan Dziarzhautsau says the reason was a picket he and another party activist Vital Kavalenka held on April 26, the anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. They raised placards “Only Belarus's enemy can construct an NPP without people's consent” and “Dictator, Astravets will turn into Chernobyl” in Zamkavaya Street near Masherau monument.

The police was probably called by a passer-by. A police car arrived after the activists had hidden the placards and were going to leave the site. Police officers say the display of placards would be interpreted as an unsanctioned picket. The deputy head of the order and crime prevention department of the Vitebsk regional executive committee, Andrei Ivanou, asked to show the placards to make sure they “did not contain calls to overthrow the government”.

“A police cameraman was filming our conversation with Ivanou from the car. Our placards were rolled up. A police patrol accompanied us to a bus stop so that we could not unfurl placards in another place. I was told in the police department that there were many eye-witnesses of our picket. I replied it was not a picket, because we didn't make say political slogans or demands. We wrote our personal opinions on the placards, we wrote that we were against construction of a nuclear power station. I think one can express his or her personal opinion freely, but the police seem not to agree,” Yan Dziarzhautsau says.

The activist says people were taking photos on their mobile phones. Pictures were posted on the internet on April 26. Policemen say it will be another evidence at a trial.

Yan Dziarzhautsau was told in the Kastrychnitski district police department that his case would be sent to court on May 6. Police are looking for another participant of the “picket”, Vital Kavalenka, the brother of activist Siarhei Kavalenka, to hand him a summons and make a police report.