Pensioner fined for picket that wasn't held

Halina Kotava, a pensioner and activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, has been fined for a picket that didn't begin.

A judge of Hrodna's Kastrychnitski district court, Zinaida Bartsevich, issued a fine of 25 penalty units (2.5 million Belarusian rubles) to BCD activist Halina Kotava. Bartsevich found the pensioner guilty of committing an administrative offence – holding an unsanctioned picket in Rumleuski park. The judge ignored the fact that the woman had stopped the picket as soon as she understood it was unsanctioned and didn't turn attention that the woman's pension was only 1,700,000 rubles, Viasna human rights centre reports.

It should be reminded that BCD activists from Hrodna were going to organise a picket to support small border traffic with the neighbouring countries on March 2. Halina Kotava, an applicant for the picket, mistakenly understood that the event was permitted in Rumleuski park. Before the start of the picket, men in civilian clothes appeared and began to film the activists.

BCD coordinator in the Hrodna region Mikalai Bausyuk says the men didn't warn officially that the picket was banned. The BCD activists went away just after they understood the event was not permitted. Later police drew up a report against Halina Kotava, the applicant for the picket.