Massive attack by the authorities on human rights defenders and NGOs

On July 14 the law enforce­ment offi­cers came with search­es to the human rights activists of «Vias­na».

At 7 a.m. the law enforcers came to search the lawyer Uladz­imir Labkovich. They also searched the house of «Vias­na» Board mem­ber Valiantsin Ste­fanovich. Accord­ing to Ali­na, Valentin’s wife, the search end­ed at 10:30. They seized all the equip­ment. Valiantsin Ste­fanovich was tak­en away.

Jour­nal­ist and human rights activist Siarhei Sys was detained in Min­sk. His house was also searched. Details are still unknown. Chair­man of the Human Rights Cen­ter «Vias­na» Ales Biali­ats­ki can’t be reached.

Coor­di­na­tor of the Human righst degen­ders against death penal­ty cam­paign Andrei Palu­da also report­ed a search. He was tak­en to the Rights Ter­ti­to­ry space where anoth­er search is planned.

Human rights activist of Vias­na Ale­na Lapt­sion­ak informed about a search in her house and deten­tion. She is per­se­cut­ed under Arti­cle 342 (group actions that gross­ly dis­rupt pub­lic order) and Arti­cle 243 (tax eva­sion) of the Crim­i­nal Code. Head of the Mazyr chap­ter of Vias­na Uladz­imir Tseli­a­pun report­ed that some­one was at his door in the morn­ing but he did­n’t open.

The apart­ment of the direc­tor of the Lawtrend Legal Trans­for­ma­tion Cen­ter Vol­ha Smalian­ka was searched. She report­ed on Face­book that the search will also take place in the office of the human rights orga­ni­za­tion.

In Orsha, law enforce­ment offi­cers arrest­ed Ihar Kazmer­chak, edi­tor of the local por­tal orsha.eu and human rights activist. Kazmer­chak had already been detained on July 8; his home was searched then. Three days lat­er he was released from deten­tion.

Police also came to the house of Hrod­na human rights defend­er Vik­tar Sazonau. At 9:50 a.m. they stopped the search and took his com­put­ers and cell phones. The law enforcers took the human rights defend­er with them: his sta­tus and where­abouts are unknown now.

The police aslo came to offices of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, Ime­na jour­nal (char­i­ty media), Gen­der Per­spec­tives, Belaru­sian Helsin­ki Com­mit­tee, BEROC Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic Research, Belaru­sian Pop­u­lar Front par­ty, Lawtrend Legal Trans­for­ma­tion Cen­ter, Union of Belaru­sians of the World «Father­land», and mem­bers of Human Con­stan­ta, Polack inde­pen­dent trade union, Belaru­sian School Asso­ci­a­tion, Supol­nasc Cen­ter and oth­ers.