‘Porno peddling’. Belarus citizen may land up in prison over posting Rammstein video

In 2014, Andrey Halavenka, a 25-year-old resident of Hrodna, published a music video ‘Pussy’ by the world-known German band Rammstein on his Vkontakte social media page. Now he is facing trial over ‘porno peddling’.

“I do not know how they found that post. I stay out [of scandals] and lead a normal life: work-home-work,” Halavenka said when reached by Belsat.eu.

In March 2019, the Belarusian State Committee of Judicial Examinations placed a ban on showing and distrubuting the video due to the presence of pornographic scenes.

The Hrodna department of the Investigative Committee launched a criminal case under Article 343-2 ( ‘Making and distributing pornographic materials’) against Andrey Halavenka. In accordance with the Belarusian Criminal Code, porno peddling is punishable by up to four years in prison.

“I shared the video and forgot about it. I cannot remember whether I watched it at all. And now they claim that I distributed pornography. At first, I did not understand where those ‘porn’ allegations came from. It turned out that they were talking about [the video by] Rammstein. The policemen asked why I had posted it,” the man told Belsat.eu.

The resident of Hrodna has been summoned for questioning.

belsat.eu

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