A 38-year-old resident of Zhdanovichy, detained on March 18, has been charged with “active protest activities”.
According to the press service of Minsk Region Executive Committee, she was the administrator of a local chat room and had organized and participated in “unsanctioned public events,” the so-called “tea-parties,” “walks,” and “concerts” since last summer.
“The Zhdanovichy police department and the police have repeatedly received complaints from local residents that the participants of unsanctioned mass events interfere with the comfort and recreation. Each time, as soon as they saw the police officers, the “protesters” put away all the protest symbols and said they had simply gathered to “socialize” or “have tea,” but after the departure of law enforcement officers there were actively posted on local chat rooms pictures of participants “drinking tea,” surrounded by protest symbols, which, by the way, were also used to “decorate” the yard of the couple, as well as one of the windows of the house,” said the press release.
According to the police department, the woman has repeatedly been brought to administrative responsibility for this, but the court decided not to punish her with arrest because of the five children she and her husband are raising.
According to the department, during an inspection in the house they found and seized protest symbols and media. The husband, as the owner of the house, is serving an administrative arrest for picketing, while the children are looked after by their grandmother.
The spouses’ performance of their child-rearing duties will be evaluated by the competent authorities.
The mother’s name is Volha Zalatar, who, according to the latest data, is kept in detention center #1 in Minsk. Her husband Syarhei Hankevich was sentenced to 10 days in jail for putting a flag in the window of a private house. The man claimed there were no flags in the house and on the windows, moreover, it would have been impossible to see them because of the 2.2-meter high fence. The policeman, who acted as a witness, stated that he saw the flag on the first floor window when he jumped up.
