Brest: pickets in memory of missing politicians are banned

04.09.2008. Tags: pickets, political disappearances.
Source: Charter`97.

On 3 September the court of Leninski district of Brest dismissed the complaint of Andrei Sharenda and Vital Symonik against a prohibition to hold a picket on 7 July, dedicated to the 8th anniversary of Dzmitry Zavadski’s abduction.

As the BelaPAN was told by a human rights activist Ramak Kuisliak, the rally with the aim to attract attention of the public to the demands to carry out a real investigation of the cases of the abducted public personalities, and to adopt and ratify the International Convention for defense of all persons from forcible abductions was planned to be held in the centre of Brest at the spot near the Drama and Music Theatre.

The picket was prohibited on the grounds that the decision of the city executive committee stadium Locomotive had been determined as the permanent place of mass events.

‘The decision has set the place for holding public events, but there is no prohibition for organizing them in other spots. Besides, the court ignored the reasoning of activists about the stadium being a territory of a concrete organization, where it is absurd to express a certain opinion, when it doesn’t concern this building,’ R. Kisliak said.

A.Sharenda and V.Symonik are set to challenge the decision of the district court to the judicial division on civil cases of the regional court.