Hrodna City Executive Committee issues a “cynic” picket ban
Hrodna City Executive
Committee once again prohibited the human rights defenders Uladzimir
Khilmanovich, Raman Yurhel and Viktar Sazonau to hold an
informational picket. The activists intended to hold a picket against
the death penalty on 10 October, the World Day against the Death
Penalty, and inform the citizens about this issue.
This time
the authorities met the legal terms of answering the application –
they sent their answer on the last day of the legal term for
answering, 5 October. At the same time, the justification for the
refusal to hold the picket is just absurd. In their official letter,
signed by the deputy head of the Hrodna City Executive Committee
Alena Ahei, the officials of the Hrodna City Executive Committee tell
the applicants: “In your appeal you were to
have written whether the even would be held with the use of
pyrotechnic products and open fire ...".
Another reason for the ban is that on the
basis of the responses from the Leninski District Police Department
of Hrodna, the Hrodna City Housing Service and the Hrodna city
ambulance station the executive committee concluded that the
applicants were unable to implement the legal requirements. However,
the legal basis of this assertion remains unclear.
One of the
applicants, Uladzimir Khilmanovich, commented on the situation: “This
time the ban was formulated with great
cynicism, the executive committee again
violates our constitutional rights as citizens
of the Republic of Belarus. The other, of course, couldn't
be expected. At a
recent trial, where our appeal against a similar ban was considered,
the judge and the prosecutor ignored evident violations of the law by
the executive authorities. The officials continue discriminating
citizens and taking such politically motivated, i.e. unlawful
decisions.”
