Activist From Hrodna: Police Break Their Own Record In Cynicism

Even the people who anything but participated in the action of commemorating Kalinouski’s insurgents in Svislach got punished.

Human rights defender from Hrodna Victar Sazonau was accused of direct participation in the “non-sanctioned action” in Svislach on the Day of memory of the insurgents of 1863, although he was there as an observer.

According to him, no policeman or other official representative of the special services came over to the participants of the action to explain they were committing a violation. Instead of that, they watched the participants and filmed them, and later on, in several days, the activists found out the police had made charges against them.

“This year, the authorities and the system of the Belarusian law-enforcing broke their own record. No one expected such cynicism, even those who attended the trial against a man without an arm, who was accused of applauding. Then again, he was a Hrodna resident.

The Svislach case was even more cynical than that. They have already sentenced and punished a person who hadn’t been there and had known nothing what was happening there in Svislach at all.

Another activist arrived late, when the people gathered to commemorate the deceased according to the old Belarusian tradition. The policemen came to his house to make a charge for participation in a non-sanctioned event.

This reflects the real condition of our law-enforcement and court systems. We will publish our detailed analysis of the Svislach case after all the trials are over,” - Victar Sazonau has commented to Haradzenskaya Viasna.

Herein, he promised that the Hrodna human rights activists will monitor the progress of the Svislach case and file complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee.