BAJ Spoke In Support Of Blogger Andrei Pavuk

Journalists demand to investigate the provocations.

Belarusian Association of Journalists asked the Minister of Internal Affairs of Belarus to take personal control of conducting checks on the facts of illegal actions against a member of the organization, a well-known blogger Andrei Pavuk, the website of the Human Rights Center Viasna informs.

Over the past six months, a number of provocations have been committed against the blogger, but the law enforcement agencies have not found the guilty parties. Thus, on March 20th, a report about the mining of the district executive committee building in the town of Kastrychnitski was allegedly received from Pavuk's e-mail and his mobile phone number. The criminal investigation officers of the Kastrychnitski district police department came to the apartment where Andrei Pavuk lives with his family, searched it and seized the computer and the video blogger's professional equipment.

Andrei Pavuk was handcuffed and taken to the Investigative Committee, where he was held for 5 hours. From the moment of his arrest until his wife's arrival at home, the five-year-old child was left alone in the apartment. The Investigative Committee initiated criminal proceedings under part 1 of article 340 of the Criminal Code on knowingly false reports of mining. A month later, the criminal case against Pavuk was stopped and the seized equipment was partially returned. The author of the report on the alleged mining has not been identified until now. In May, the story was repeated. The Ministry of Emergency Situations received an e-mail message about the mining of the court building in Mazyr, and the message about the mining contained the number of Pavuk's mobile phone again. Andrei Pavuk wrote a statement asking to find out who was using his phone number and e-mail for false messages, but these persons were not identified.

Andrei appealed against the actions of the police officers to the prosecutor's office in March, and after the prosecutor's office recognized these actions as corresponding to the Criminal Procedure Code - to the court. The hearing of the suit for compensating moral damages in the Kastrychnitski district court was scheduled for September 25. On the eve of the hearing, the blogger received a threatening message from unknown persons in the Viber messenger:

"Tomorrow is the day of the trial, and you will lose it. The point with the search was designed to make you think about your behavior, shut your stinking mouth and get a job. Thank us for not planting anything. If you are engaged in sabotage and vilification of the existing power, measures will be taken against you. You will get into prison and your [obscenity] wife will be carrying the care packages [...]".

The author of the message has not been identified so far either.

In the evening of October 4, Andrei Pavuk received a call from the police department officer on duty, who said that the police had received a phone call allegedly from Pavuk's number, during which an unknown person, who introduced himself as Andrei, reported his home address, said that he had "killed his wife Volha". Andrei's wife Volha had to phone and explain that the call is a provocation.

The police department has already reported that the "hooligan" will not be found. It is obvious that for a long time, Andrei and his family have been subjected to psychological pressure and intimidation due to the illegal actions of unidentified people. In our opinion, the reason for the repeated provocations against the video blogger might be his activity on disseminating information, the right to which is guaranteed by Art. 33, 34 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus.

Unfortunately, the internal affairs bodies do not undertake effective actions aimed at finding the guilty parties and bringing them to justice in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus. Meanwhile, in accordance with the provisions of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Bodies of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus", one of the main tasks of the bodies of internal affairs is to protect life, health, honor, dignity, rights, freedoms and lawful interests of citizens from criminal and other illegal encroachments, to ensure their personal safety and property protection (Articles 2, 6).

Therefore, BAJ asks Minister of Internal Affairs of Belarus Yury Karayeu:

"To take personal control over conducting investigations into the illegal actions against Andrei Pavuk.

To instruct employees of the territorial bodies of internal affairs to take all possible effective measures for conducting inspections aimed at identifying the perpetrators and bringing them to justice, as established by law".

Copies of the appeal were sent to the heads of the Homel region police department and the Kastrychnitski district police department.