Fanipal Residents Appealed To Lukashenka, And Police Came To Them

The people in the satellite town of Minsk just wish to live like human beings.

Fanipal residents wish to live a decent life. More than 400 local residents have signed a collective appeal to the regional prosecutor's office, the State Control Committee and the Lukashenka administration in order to make them aware of the troubles in the satellite town of Minsk. Instead, the city authorities sent the police to them, Belsat reports.

It all started off with the problem house № 5 in Brestskaya Street. People live here, but the utility services say they are not working until the developer repays the debt.

Roads that are dug across and broken, the rotten pipes that have been built in violation of technology, as well as constant water supply cuts all over the town - these are the problems that Fanipal residents demand to be investigated by a special commission. The people also want to have a bus running from their town to the Malinauka metro station in the capital to go to work.

In July, Dzmitry Shchahlou, a resident of that very troubled house, collected signatures, having invited people to gather through a social network. As a result, a car with people in civilian clothes was parked near the meeting place, and a couple of days later four policemen came to Shchahlou's house with a protocol.

"I was collecting signatures on the basis of the law №300-3 on citizens' appeals. It does not establish the order, time and way of collecting. And the policemen had been just told where to go and what to do," - Dzmitry Shchahlou says.

Fanipal district police officer Ryhor Navitski explains that Shchahlou has allegedly violated the law on mass events, since he invited people to gather without the permission of the city executive committee.

According to the law on mass events, citizens are obliged to get permission from the local authorities in advance, as well as to pay for the services of the police, ambulance and public utilities if they want to gather for anything by themselves. The changes were introduced after a wave of social protests in different towns and cities of Belarus.

It seems the Dziarzhynsk district court has also considered it in the same way. But the judge did not recognize the administrative protocol on the violation of the law and sent it back to the policemen for revision.