Jailed activist Illya Mironau allegedly suspected of financing ‘extremist activities’
Illya Mironau‘s mother Valyantsina has published a reply that Savetski district police department of Homel gave to Illya’s request for information about the reasons for the search of his place.
As it follows from the letter, Illya Mironau is probably being held in a pre-trial detention centre on suspicion of financing extremist activities (Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code).
The Mironau family’s home has been raided several times this year. During one of the searches, security officers confiscated about 30 letters that Illya received from political prisoners.
Illya Mironau is known for his actively writing letters to political prisoners; by the moment, the number of the letters sent has exceeded 2,000. On August 17, he was detained on a flimsy basis (the man was wearing a T-shirt with the inscription ‘Write Letters!’), accused of ‘picketing’ and sentenced to 25 days in jail.
The young man was again detained on September 30. It is not ruled out that another reason for his being persecuted is a post on Facebook. There he commented on the recent shootout which resulted in the deaths of Minsk-based IT specialist Andrey Zeltsar and KGB officer Dzmitry Fedasyuk. As reported earlier, on the back of the tragedy on Yakubouski Street, detentions took place in Minsk, Homiel, Vitsebsk, Mahiliou, other cities and towns of Belarus. They were detained under criminal articles 369 (‘Insulting a representative of the authorities’) and 130 (‘Inciting social hatred’). Human rights activists believe that the wave of repression is connected to the people’s discussing the story of Zeltsar and Fedasyuk on social media platforms.
In early October, Illya Mironau was not released, but transferred to a remand prison.
belsat.eu
