Siarhei Piatrukhin: My Case Is Trumped Up

Brest blogger and his lawyer get acquainted with materials of the criminal case.

Brest blogger Siarhei Piatrukhin and his lawyer started to get acquainted with materials of the criminal case for "libel and insult".

According to Brestskaya Vesna, the blogger is accused under Article 188 para 2 and Article 189, para 2 of the Criminal Code "libel and insult, inflicted in a public speech, or in a written edition, or mass media".

It's a four-volume case. Investigator Andranik Khachatryan banned photocopying of materials, so the lawyer and the blogger rewrite materials by hand.

A. Khachatryan distrained the property seized from the blogger last May - laptop, tablet and telephone - to ensure repayment of possible claims.

"We are not allowed to take pictures, because the case is trumped up. If these documents are made public, the Investigative Committee will be laughed down by taxpayers. But it will happen anyway, because the truth will come afloat anyway. Soon there will be a video in which I show how the investigator works. During my arrest in the detention center, I wondered how many cases Andranik Saakovich had trumped up. How many people did he put in jail on orders from superiors? He replied that everything was done according to the law. Oh, sure... ", Siarhei Piatrukhin comments ironically on actions of investigators.

The criminal case against a blogger became public on 23 July 2018.

Blogger Siarhei Piatrukhin is shooting many videos about protests against the battery plant in Brest. On May 12th, his house was searched and his laptop, tablet, camera and mobile phone were seized. These things have not been returned so far. Besides, Piatrukhin was repeatedly detained by the police, fined and he served an administrative arrest.

Siarhei was awarded the Victor Ivashkevich National Prize in the field of human rights protection for 2018: "For Courage in Art" and "For Personal Courage".