Valyantsin Stefanovich: If convicted, Rubtsou to become political prisoner

The trial over Yury Rubtsou s viewed as purely politically motivated.

Such a statement has been made by Valyantsin Stefanovich, a human rights activist, in an interview to “Nasha Niva”.

“This process is directly connected with the problem of arbitrary arrests, which is widespread and long-lasting in Belarus,” he said. “[I mean the problem of] Arbitrary arrests of oppositional movements and parties’ activists for their membership in those organisations.

Not long ago at the sitting of the OSCE session in Warsaw, together with the International Federation for Human Rights we presented a joint report on this topic. And Yury Rubtsou is mentioned there several times, he had been detained twice, allegedly for using foul speech.

It was a trial behind the closed doors, no one was allowed to attend it [the administrative process on April 28], and now policemen, who testified that Rubtsou used foul speech, testify that he allegedly insulted the judge. However I am seriously distrustful about their testimony. The testimony is written down word for word, letter for letter. We saw the same during the courts after December 19, [2010]. Audio recording was not made in the court room. It is very hard to establish whether the phrases, Rubtsou is accused of had been saying, really belonged to him.

It should be also taken in account that Rubtsou had been taken to the court in a state which harms the reputation of a person, and gives offence to human dignity. However, Judge Kiryl Palulekha for some reason was not interested why a bare-chested man stood in front of him. If he would have asked, he would be told that the person had been detained for the T-shirt with the words “Lukashenka, go away” only. And that was the only offense. That is, the man had been detained while he used his legal right for peaceful assembly and expression of his opinion.

So in case Rubtsou would be sentenced to three years of restriction of freedom and sent to an open-type facility, the so-called “khimiya”, human rights activists will recognize him a prisoner of conscience.

Photo by charter97.org