Court upheld ruling about Alena Tankachova’s expulsion from Belarus

The Pershamajski district court of Minsk dismissed the complaint of a human rights activist Alena Tankachova, who appealed against the decision of the district police department to expel her from Belarus.

Such a decision was announced by Judge Natallya Petukh on January 13, BelaPAN informs.

We remind that back on November 5, 2014, the district police department of Pershamajski district of Minsk ordered to expel the human rights activist from the country within a month. She was also banned from visiting the country in the next three years. The decision was based upon minor violations of traffic rules by the car belonging to Tankachova, recorded by video cameras.

The human rights activist appealed against this decision. The process of appealing against the decision includes suspension of the court order for 3 months, each month is given for appealing in each court of appeal. On December 12 the human rights activist’s appeal was dismissed by the first instance, at the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs of Minsk city executive committee.

A citizen of Russia, Alena Tankachova, had lived in Belarus for about 30 years. For 20 years Tankachova and the Center for Legal Transformation “Lawtrend”, headed by her, provide professional legal and expert assistance to non-profit institutions of Belarus, as well as aid in situations when human rights are violated.

At the previous session on January 12, Tankachova asked the court to reverse the decision to expel her from the country, as it had been based upon alleged threats. As said by the human rights activist, the interior affairs agencies were proceeding from the fact that earlier she was driving a car and violated traffic rules, which “could result in inflicting bodily harm to citizens or cause their death.” “But in all my life I had never committed actions which could have caused any injury to citizens. That is why the justification of the interior affair agencies is based upon alleged threat, which could not be considered trustworthy,” Tankachova said.

Besides, Tankachova noted that police do not have sufficient evidence that she was driving the car when cameras recorded speeding violation.

The human rights activist also asked to take into account that her connection to the Republic of Belarus has “a long-term and stable nature,” as she has a permanent employment and property here, and her daughter is a citizen of Belarus. In no other country Tankachova has either a job, or property, or accommodation.

Public activists have collected 7 thousand signatures under the appeal not to expel Tankachova from the country. Representatives of the civil society consider the actions of the authorities disproportionate and politically motivated sanction, related to the professional activities of the human rights activist.