Activists of European Belarus campaign in Brest called to prosecutor's office

A family of activists of European Belarus civil campaign received summonses to appear in the prosecutor's office for giving explanations.

The documents singed by Brazinskaya, a senior assistant to the Brest prosecutor, were sent to Andrei Sharenda and Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk by mail. They must appear in the Brest prosecutor's office on June 29 to “give explanations in connection with a lawsuit for recovery of damage inflicted to a company”. The prosecutor's assistance writes Andrei and Palina can be taken to the prosecutor's office “forcefully by police” in case of failure to appear in accordance with part 2 of article 10 of the law on prosecution agencies of the Republic of Belarus.

Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk talked to chater97.org about the situation.

“We don't know what they want from us. We didn't inflict any damage to companies and didn't receive complaints from individuals and companies. We just received these summonses. We didn't go to the prosecutor's office and we are not going to do it with these strange papers. We think such actions by prosecutors can be explained with our activism. The authorities used many tools to create problems for us: they fined us several times and threatened our relatives. This time, they apparently decided to use the 'Russian way' and trump-up a case against us, as it happened to Navalny. On the one hand, Lukashenka said not to press anyone ahead of the so called elections. But on the other hand, it's clear that the regime will not weaken repression. The authorities will try to hide it and make less vivid. They will impose more fines. We already see it is happening to independent journalists.

If it grows to something serious, we will appeal to human rights defenders. We try to ignore mean tricks of the regime. We have the aim, and we continue doing what we do,” the activist said.

This is not the first fact of repression against the activists in Brest.

Andrei Sharenda was detained on a trolleybus on January 16. The police said he looked like “a man who committed a crime”. He was charged with violating article 17.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences (disorderly conduct) and then with violating article 21.14 (violating the rules of urban landscaping and maintenance) for allegedly pasting leaflets with portraits of disappeared Belarusian politicians.

Andrei Sharenda was detained this March at the passport control checkpoint on the Belarusian border in Brest. The activist was searched, and seven EU flags were confiscated.

Andrei Sharenda was detained three times on one day by the same police patrol on June 12. Police officers were ordered to charge him with disorderly conduct, but they refused to make fake reports by order of their bosses.