Belsat Cameraman Goes on Hunger Strike (+ Audio of Detention)

There were motions to take pho­tos and video in court; the judge reject­ed. Ali­ak­san­dr Barazen­ka plead­ed non-guilty, claim­ing he had been per­form­ing pro­fes­sion­al duties of a jour­nal­ist, which he under­lined in the police’s report. Dur­ing deten­tion, he sev­er­al times indi­cat­ed him­self as a jour­nal­ist, but the detain­ing police offi­cers ignored this.

He tried to get the wit­ness caught on the fact that the wit­ness — Mikhail Varyvonchyk, a riot police­man of the Min­sk City Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee police depart­ment — did not remem­ber the jour­nal­ist’s appear­ance. The jour­nal­ist also asked the police­man to write down what exact­ly foul words the jour­nal­ist had spo­ken. The judge also saw the video which showed the jour­nal­ist at the moment of deten­tion.

The video with the vioce at the back show­ing the moment when Ali­ak­san­dr Barazen­ka was detained. It is heard well that he repeats he is a jour­nal­ist and offers the press-card. Then in court, the wit­ness police offi­cers tes­ti­fied that the jour­nal­ist was shout­ing obscene words and wav­ing hands.

Tri­als: Jour­nal­ists Charged with Hooli­gan­ism and Unsanc­tioned Demos