Student Viyaleta Lyudchyk was detained on May 15 at the BSU FEST festival. The event was staged in Minsk on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Belarusian State University (BSU).
When the guards were checking her belongings at the entrance, they saw a sticker in white and red colours on her laptop and called the riot police, human rights centre Viasna reports.
The 19-year-old student was taken to Tsentralny district police department, where the officers drew a protocol under Art. 24.23 of the Code of Administrative Offences upon her. According to the document, Viyaleta chanted the slogan ‘Long live Belarus’. The girl added her own remarks to it, but suprisingly, they disappeared when the protocol was included in the case file.
The trial was held on May 17; the defendant was charged with ‘violation of rules of holding mass events’. A policeman who witnessed in court testified that the girl had shouted out the slogan right during the inspection. In turn, she pleaded not guilty and referred to the sticker on her laptop, saying that she simplu likes white and red colours.
Judge Alyaksandr Petrash found Viyaleta Lyudchuk guilty and imposed a fine of 2,900 rubles (appr. $1,150) on her.
In 1991, the white-red-white flag and the emblem Pahonya (Pursuit) were adopted as national symbols of the country. However, they were official until the 1995 referendum, when on the tip from Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who is an ardent adherer of the USSR, they were replaced by the Soviet ones. For years, pro-Lukashenka officials have been linking the white-red-white colours to the opposition. Last December, the authorities warned that those Belarusian citizens who would hang out ‘unregistered symbols’ even on their windows or balconies might be penalised under administrative law.
belsat.eu
