The house of Vorsha resident Raman Kuzmyankou was searched.
A few days ago, the local resident held a 15-minute picket in the main square of the Belarusian city of Vorsha. He was detained by the local police and fined. According to eyewitnesses, the man was not chanting or speaking out, he was just reading the book. It seems that his only ‘fault’ is placing a homemade sign ‘We Do Not Get $500 Salary Here’. The inscription referred to Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s promise to provide $500 average salary to Belarusians.
Formally, in accordance with the documents, the police just ‘inspected’ the place after they had been anonymously reported about Raman’s allegedly insulting a local official. However, the representatives of the Orsha district police department did not go into detail and failed to explain how and who had been insulted.
The policemen seized Raman’s computer, printer, removable disk and pen drive.
Raman believes that the search was caused action by his one-man picket held on May 14 in Lenin Square.
On the very same day, the picketer was summoned to the Investigative Committee. The conversation lasted about 40 minutes; the man asked about the picket and letters he had previously sent to local authorities. According to Kuzmyankou, all these measures are nothing but attempts to intimidate him.
In terms of jobs and salaries, Vorsha is one of the struggling regions in Belarus. In 2017, many local residents took part in the protest against the so-called ‘parasite’ decree.
Viktar Staravoitau, belsat.eu
