Human Rights Activist: Such Punishment As Public Apology To Sculpture Does Not Exist

The police actions against the 16-year-old student were illegal.

The policemen who detained the teenager for the slap in the face of the monument and caught him on video, when asking for forgiveness, abused their official powers. This opinion was expressed by human rights activist Aleh Vouchak, euroradio.fm reports.

“In this case, there is an abuse of power by the police, because such kind of punishment – apologizing publicly to the sculpture, – does not exist,” – he said.

Vouchak says that he doesn’t see any legal offence in the teenager’s actions: “Equivalently, he could hit a water pipe. If the teenager doused the sculpture with paint, one could talk about causing harm. If we are talking about an insult, then you can only offend a real person, who must file a statement.”

He calls the actions of the police illegal and declares the degradation of law enforcement officers.

As reported by Charter97.org, on November 15, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs published a video, in which 16-year-old Lyceum student Arsen slaps the sculpture of a policeman near the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The guy was detained and an administrative report for petty hooliganism was drawn up against him. For camera, the teenager apologized for insulting the monument and police employees.