The police requires Br21 million for "work" on Freedom Day

This is innovation of Minsk authorities. Payment for police services was not practiced before.

Yury Hubarevich, the first Deputy Head of the For Freedom movement stated. He explained Radio Svaboda that the issue on necessity to pay for police services had occured the day before Freedom Day. Then the representatives of the Internal Affairs invited opposition to sign an agreement for public order maintenance that cost Br21 million. Earlier, organizers of mass invents never paid for it.

"This is innovation of Minsk authorities. Payment for police services was not practiced before. We think all participants of the Freedom Day, as well as all citizens of Belarus have the Constitution-based right to participate in mass events, so this requirement is a nonsense. However, it was enforced on the eve against the event organizers. If they did not sign the agreement, of course, obstacles in holding of the Freedom Day would originate.

And to find out what the above-stated amount was spent for (about Br5 million and 300 thousand for each of four applicants) Mikita Semianko addressed the police authorities. Was this money really spent for order maintenance or was simply put in the police budget? In what way was the work distributed and how it was paid for? Police officers are public servants, but was their work covered by the State budget? The information should be provided, this is the rule: if you don't know what you pay for, you may refuse", Hubarevich says.

He adds no explanations on the issue were provided during the meeting between the Minsk police and organizers of a mass event on March 24.

It should be mentioned that even an approximate number of policemen involved in the Freedom Day event is unknown. The report of human rights activists says it was hard to identify law enforcement officers "because of lack of officers in uniform or lack of identification plates on the uniform".