A Belarusian court imposed a fine of 980 rubles (about $490) to cameraman Syarhei Kavaliou. The freelancer got a corresponding court order in the mail.
The cameraman was fined for illegal production and distribution of media products, i.e. for livestreaming July’s press conference in the restaurant Let’s Go And Eat in Kurapaty. The judgment was delivered by Babruysk district court judge Alena Hormash.
As reported earlier, journalist Katsyaryna Andreyeva was also punished for covering the press event in the restaurant – she got a fine of 1,225 rubles.
It is not the first penalty that Kavaliou has faced in 2018; the amount of fines has totalled to 2,695 rubles (about $1,350).
Kurapaty, a place on the outskirts of Minsk, is not just the national memorial and a mass grave of the victims of Stalinist repression; since 1993, it has been is a site of historical and cultural heritage. According to historians, 100,000 – 250,000 persons might have been killed there.
For over 100 days, Kurapaty defenders keep protesting against ‘dancing on the bones’, i.e. opening the restaurant Let’s Go And Eat in the vicinity of the mass grave. Activists first asked the authorities to interfere with the situation, and then decided to act independently. They are trying not to let cars to the territory of the restaurant.
