Tatsiana Seviarynets: Such Trials Are Both Funny And Bitter

The trials have turned into a farce.

The Vitsebsk Regional Court left six more sentences for supporting the independence of Belarus unchanged. Aliaksandr Dubrouski, Tatsiana Seviarynets and Alena Yanushkouskaya failed to protest the six fines ranging from 25 to 30 basic units. All three had been punished for participating in the protests in Minsk on December 20 and 21, and in Vitsebsk protest against deep integration, held on December 29 last year, racyja.com reports.

The trials have turned into a farce, Tatsiana Seviarynets believes:

- It's funny to me, you know! If a person has brought the country to collapse, to sale, and we stopped it with our protests - it turns out that we have saved this person's power, for a short period of time, I hope ... and we're still being tried for it!

The sessions also turned into a farce: the activists' speeches were stopped sometimes by applause and sometimes by laughter. Blogger Alena Yanushkouskaya captured it all on video. She ignored the ban of judges on videotaping, and believes that this is absolutely the right thing to do:

- Public space, the trial is not closed. This is our right to videotape, our right to distribute information! Otherwise, the judges put themselves above the Constitution. As I was told today: it is me who forbids you to videotape... Publicity is our first defence. Capture it on video and don't be afraid!

Not a single complaint consideration in the regional court brought results: judges Iryna Smaliakova and Sviatlana Ivanova considered all fines imposed on supporters of independence a fair punishment. The activists do not agree with this. They will prepare a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee. Tatsiana Seviarynets already has such an experience: the Human Rights Committee acknowledged that Belarus had violated its international obligations to ensure the rights of citizens to peaceful assembly and expression of their own views.