Belarusian court didn’t find anything unlawful in beating oppositionist

Syarhei Kavalenka wanted the militiamen, who had beaten him during the detention after he had hung out a national white-red-white flag in Vitsebsk, to be brought to responsibility.

Syarhei Kavalenka filed a complaint to the Kastrychnitski district court about excessive use of power by the militiamen, who had detained him on January 7 for hanging out a national flag, Radio Svaboda reminds. According to the activist, lieutenant colonel Andrei Ivanou, junior sergeant Maksim Maksimau, and senior sergeant Vasily Palitika insulted and beat him, bodily injury was recorded at medical examination.

Judge Tatsyana Zhuraukova refused to consider the activist’s complaint in court. As Kavalenka learnt from materials of the criminal case, the three militiamen demanded him to pay 10 million rubles to each as a compensation for moral damage. They say the activist showed disobedience to militia officers at the moment of detention and insulted them.

Syarhei Kavalenka pleads not guilty to charges of disobedience and hooliganism, as officer of the Kastrychnitski district militia department determined the act of raising a white-red-white flag on a Christmas tree on January 7. A member of the BPF Christian Conservative Party from Vitsebsk filed several requests to investigator Andrei Baranau. Kavalenka wanted the investigation not to take into consideration conflicting evidence of witnesses and demanded to admit that his action wasn’t hooliganism and the case was politically motivated.

According to lawyer Pyotr Kavalenka, the investigator dismissed all requests and wrote in a response that they “contradicted the facts of evidence in the criminal case”.

The criminal case against Syarhei Kavalenka is to be sent to a prosecutor’s office and then to court. If accusations presented against Syarhei Kavalenka are proved in the court, he will face up to 6 years in prison.