Journalists beaten and fined, their equipment damaged. No violations found by Supreme Court

Brest journalists Ales Liauchuk and Milana Kharytonava have gone through all the courts in Belarus trying to appeal the actions of law enforcement officers. The Supreme Court of Belarus rejected their appeal just like all other courts before it.

On March 18, the journalists were harshly detained in Kobryn after covering the non-parasite protest. They were beaten and their cameras were seized. Two protocols for “violating the law on mass media” and “disobeying a lawful order or request of an official in the exercise of official authority” were drawn against them. The journalists claim that the police threatened them with execution.

On April 13, the Kobryn court fined the journalists almost 2,000 BYN.

Later, the journalists went through all the courts of Belarus, but never managed to get justice.

“It was kind of an experiment to show that there are no such things as the courts and the prosecutor’s office. We wrote complaints wherever possible — at all the levels of the police, the investigative committee, the prosecutor’s office. And everywhere we receive formal replies, our complaints were kicked around liek a hot potato. We passed all levels of courts — the court of Kobryn district, Brest Regional Court, Chairman of the Brest Regional Court, the Supreme Court. Although we did not get justice, we urge Belarusians to massively write complaints, if their rights are violated, sooner or later it will result in something,” said Ales Liauchuk to Belsat.

Meanwhile, the journalists are going to defend their rights outside of Belarus and are preparing a complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.