The trials of Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s initiative group members and a pensioner who came to Savetskaya Square on May 29 to sign for and meet with a well-known blogger Syarhei Tsikhanouski have been held in Hrodna. The local residents were tried for “minor hooliganism” under Article 17.1 of the Code of Administrative Violations and punished with fines.
Yulia Karnachava and Yauhen Klimuk are members of the initiative group of a potential presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya. On May 29th in the center of Hrodna they were collecting signatures during a meeting with blogger Syarhei Tsikhanouski. Pensioner Stanislava Damshel also came there to sign.
Soon a scuffle began around Tsikhanouski, then Syarhei and a number of his associates were detained and thrown into a minibus. Yulia and Yauhen ran up to the minibus.
Yulia Karnachava said the same thing as Yauhen: “They don’t listen to either arguments or explanations. I tried to help the person who was under the minibus — there was no time”.
Pensioner Stanislava Damshal was simply standing near the place where the policeman fell during the scuffle. She did not come to the court – explaining that she was self-isolating. The hearing was carried out through video communication.
Testimony from the riot police was watched without sound.
All three were testified against by riot police officers. A video showed people trying to detain a minibus with Syarhei Tsikhanouski as evidence of the crime. The video should have had the souncd of someone from under the wheels of the car calling for help.
“The video was shown silently, watched on rewind. They didn’t watch what I wanted to show,” Karnachava said outraged.
As a result, Yulia Karnachava was fined 20 basic units (540 rubles), while Yauhen Klimuk was fined 15 basic units (405 rubles). The pensioner Stanislava Damshal was fined 20 basic units (540 rubles).
