Four criminal cases against blogger of Babruisk

Repressions against Babruisk-based blogger Aleh Zhaunou continue.

The blogger says more than 14 cases – one civil case, nine administrative and four criminal ones – were opened against him last year. His son Aliaksei Zhaunou also faced criminal proceedings. Some of the cases were already heard by a court, but most trials are expected to be held later, Viasna human rights centre reports.

“Aliaksei has a forensic psychiatric assessment today,” Aleh Zhaunou says. “We hired a lawyer for him. I will use the right of defence, but as I don't have much money, a free lawyer will defend me.

Trial dates to hear the criminal cases haven't been set yet. The investigation is under way. Most cases relate to last year's incident near the road police building.

“They continue to check my office equipment. They said they found pornography there. It's article 343 of the Criminal Code. A criminal case was opened over article 369 for posting videos of offences committed by police officers on the Internet. Another criminal case is for 'deliberately false information about danger' (article 340). It's the result of my visit to a police department. A police officer took my belonging as a security threat and made a police report on a possible blast,” the blogger said.

Zhaunou has been summoned to the police for interrogations more than 40 times over the last few months.

“Police officers, whom I was supposed to see, never appear at work at the arranged time. They used force against me four times. I was handcuffed two times, and 13 items of equipment were seized,” Aleh Zhaunou says.

We remind that Aleh Zhaunou writes a popular blog often posting audio recordings and videos of illegal, as he thinks, actions of police and road police officers.