Byaroza journalist Tamara Shchapetkina learned about her trial to be held in Brest via SMS. The message was sent the night before the trial.
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Tamara Shchapetkina was summoned to court twice. At first, she received a call at 8.30 pm on March 4. The man introduced himself as the district police officer Rachynsky from Brest and said that in the morning of March 5 she should turn up at the Leninsky district court for trial. He asked if she had received a subpoena from the local police. When the journalist replied in the negative, the man said that in the morning she should call the court and ask to defer the trial. Shchapetkina refused, because she was not sure that the call was from a real police officer.
About 10 pm the same day, two policemen of Byaroza police department knocked on her door. Among them was the head of the law enforcement department Mikola Prakurat. After he learned that the journalist had not received a subroena, he asked her to sign two sheets of paper with the printed article of the Administrative Code specifying the rights of participants in the administrative process.
About 8.30 pm on March 5, Tamara Shchapetkina saw on her phone an sms saying she had to appear in the Leninsky district court of Brest on March 6 regarding the administrative case. The journalist sent two texts to that phone number. In one of them, she asked the mysterious stranger to introduce themselves. Otherwise, she would consider the message a prank. When she received no response, she wrote that she would go not to court but to the prosecutor’s office to file a complaint.
As a result, the journalist filed a complaint with the prosecutor of Byaroza district about the situation around her administrative case. Shchapetkina requested a check on the legality of police officials and take necessary measures at the level of the prosecutor’s office.
Tamara Shchapetkina is accused of collaboration with foreign media without accreditation. In December, she already received a fine of 4.5 million rubles for cooperation with Radio Ratsia.
NМ, belsat/eu/en/, Spring96.og
