Activist Fined For Poster Quoting Uladzimir Niakliayeu's Poem

The activist raised the poster during a prayer for Kurapaty on Svabody Square on April 21.

The Tsentralny District Court of Minsk fined Valiantsin Trokski, a Belarusian Social Democratic Party and Narodnaya Hramada activist, 50 basic values (1275 rubles), Siarhei Sparysh, the executive secretary of the organizing committee for the creation of the BCD party.

According to Radio Svaboda, referring to BelaPAN, Trokski was fined for a poster depicting a cross and a quotation from Uladzimir Niakliayeu's poem “Can you hear the groaning? That’s Kurapaty! ” He raised the poster during a prayer for Kurapaty on Svabody Square on April 21.

The Belarusian Law “On Mass Events” does not cover religious activities, which include prayer meetings. Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” forbids to interfere with the religious rituals and ceremonies conducted in religious buildings and on territories belonged to them, and in places of pilgrimage, cemeteries.

Nevertheless, the prayer was considered a mass action and the Narodnaya Hramada leader Mikalai Statkevich, who was considered the organizer, was sentenced to 15 days of arrest for the "unauthorized prayer."