Blogger Pavel Spiryn: Actions Of Officials Violate My Rights

A criminal case has been started with regard to a Minsk blogger for a video about the “parasitic commission”.

Minsk video blogger Pavel Spiryn turned to the human rights center “Viasna”, in respect of whom the police began checking on the fact of insulting the official under Article 189 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.

About a month ago, the video blogger posted on the Internet a video about the work of commissions “for the reveal of social parasites.”

“The video ridicules the work of these commissions. After all, they do not work on the basis of the law, but on the basis of unconstitutional decrees and ordinances,” says Pavel Spiryn.

The video has already scored more than 62 thousand views and over 500 comments.

However, the officials didn’t like this video: “and they decided to act outside the legal field.”

According to Pavel, the employees of the Minsk city executive committee created an account on behalf of the deputy head of the administration of the Leninski district of Minsk, Siarhei Pavachka. They posted a photo of the official on the page. And then posted a comment under the video, on behalf of this account.

“The comment did not contain any insult. However, later they told this story in a different way. The official said that he did not leave this comment. According to Siarhei Pavachka, the comment was authored by me or another unidentified person,” says Pavel Spiryn.

Then deputy head of the administration of the Leninski district of Minsk Siarhei Pavachka wrote a statement to the police department of the Leninski district of Minsk on the fact of him having been insulted under Article 189 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus. In the statement, the official indicated that he was suffering, lost sleep and appetite. And in the future, he can not carry out management activities until they find the person who left this comment.

Officers of the Leninski district police department of Minsk called and invited Pavel Spiryn to a conversation as part of an ongoing check on the issue of initiating a criminal case under Article 189 of the Criminal Code, as a witness.

Pavel told the police that he did not leave any comments under the video, except his own.

However, the check did not end there. The district prosecutor authorized the overview of Pavel’s apartment. As a result of the overview, the hard drive of the home computer was seized.

“I believe that these actions of the officials violate my constitutional rights and are ordered as revenge for the previous videos.I haven’t insulted anyone. There are no legal grounds for the police to check against me,” the video blogger notes.