Bialynichy procuracy pays interests to activities of Amnesty International expert
Six years ago a terrible family murder was committed
in the village of
Vialikaya Mashchanitsa.
Six people were killed, including two small children. A day later five villagers,
aged 18-24, were detained. Soon they were charged with the murder. The
investigation lasted for almost 1.5 years. The trial at the Mahiliou Region Court was conducted by
Judge Mikhail Melnikau for 11 months. The prosecutor demanded death sentence to
two of the accused, and life sentence – to the rest. However, on 2 November 2007
the panel of judges of the Mahiliou
Region Court justified all defendants because of
the lack of evidence. One of them was released in the court hall, while the
remaining four were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment (4-10 years)
for other crimes.
In 2008, Heather McGill, an expert of Amnesty International, paid a visit to
the village to meet with the former suspects and their relatives. The meeting
was organized with the assistance of journalist Barys Vyrvich.
Recently Mr. Vyrvich has paid a visit to the village in order to write an
article, because two death executions are pending in Belarus
in connection with the blast in Minsk
metro on 11 April 2011. However, when he spoke to villagers, he saw that they
were afraid of something. Eventually, the mother of one of the former suspects
told him that this summer the Bialynichy District Procuracy summonsed those of
the former suspects and their relatives who had met with Heather McGill in
2008. The formal reason was the article “Mashchanitsy case: how innocent people
barely escaped execution”, published in the private newspaper “Narodnaya Volia”.
Officers of the procuracy behaved rudely and demanded from the people to tell
all details of the meeting with the AI expert. When the woman asked what
criminal was there in the meeting with the human rights defender, an officer of
the procuracy started threatening her and shaking some papers before her face.
The summonsed were also warned against telling anyone about the “talk” at the
procuracy.
Barys Vyrvich is surprised that the procuracy officers expressed no wish to
talk with him. He also thinks that in this case the procuracy acted on order of
another state body, and that these actions are connected to the increasing
pressurization of human rights defenders in Belarus.
