Andrei Voynich: Authorities’ Actions Are Motivated With Their Powerlessness

They are getting nervous in the offices when people get up and protest.

Activist of the European Belarus civil campaign Andrei Voynich was convicted allegedly of “extremist inscription” that accidentally fell into the frame of his video, the press-center of the campaign reports.

On April 29, 2019, Andrei Voynich posted a video on his Youtube channel where he talks with activist of the European Belarus Ales Krutkin in the entrance of a residential building. An inscription made on the wall of the staircase with an abbreviation recognized as “extremist” by the decision of the Central District Court of Minsk dated December 14, 2018 and included in the republican list of “extremist materials”, got into in the frame.

On January 24, 2020, this was discovered by the officers of the internal affairs bodies, and on February 21, Tatsiana Motyl, the judge of the Maskouski District Court of Minsk, issued a ruling according to which Voynich was fined for 50 basic fees (BYN 1,350) under Part 2 of Article 17.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (distribution of information products included in the republican list of extremist materials).

The activist himself does not believe that the posted video clip may be reckoned as dissemination of extremist information. Using the public reception of the Viasna HRC, he wrote a complaint to the Minsk City Court, asking to cancel the ruling of the Maskouski District Court of Minsk, and forward the case for reconsideration:

“I believe that the court of the Maskouski District Court of Minsk personified by judge Tatsiana Motyl, when bringing me to administrative responsibility, has not evaluated on what public relations regulated by the Law on Countering Extremism the video I posted encroached on. Moreover, the court did not make an assessment as to the legality of restricting the right to distribute this video,” said Adrey Voynich in the text of the complaint.

Andrei Voynich noted that the extremist inscription has been on that wall for 10 years, and still is. It was seen by dozens of police officers, and nobody did anything. And utility services also do not care about the fact that they have extremism on the staircase.”

“The fact that the video was discovered by the employees of the internal affairs bodies almost a year after it was posted suggests that they were looking specifically for something to hook on,” the activist said.

Voynich believes that his persecution is caused by the fact that he is an activist of the European Belarus.

“However, this persecution is motivated by powerlessness,” added Andrei Voynich. “That is, they cannot do anything with the fact that people rise and protest, so they do such little nasty things.”

Human rights activist of the Viasna HRC Valiantsin Stefanovich commented on the situation:

“In my opinion, firstly, there is no relation to “extremism”, and secondly, I think that this is the prosecution of bloggers for their blogging activities.”

Human rights activists have repeatedly drawn attention to the practice of applying the legislation of the Republic of Belarus “On countering extremism.”