Minsk: Writer Anatol Kudlasevich gets heavy fine for flag on balcony, his flat harshly raided
On September 29, Anatol Kudlasevich’s wife came home after work and saw that the apartment was turned upside down. What was more, her husband was absent. The Minsker is a Belarusian bard and writer.
The family could not find Kudlasevich or get any information about him for many hours. Together with the owner, two laptops, antihypertensives, a mobile phone disappeared from the apartment.
On Thursday afternoon, it has become known that Anatol Kudlasevich was detained at home; the flat was searched. A protocol was drawn upon the detainee under Article 24.23 of the Code of Administrative Offences (‘unauthorised picketing’), human rights centre Viasna reports. In fact, the bard found himself in the authorities’ crosshairs for placing a white-red-white flag on his own balcony. In court, the defendant said that the flag had been hanging there since the year of 2020. It is an open secret that pro-Lukashenka officials are infamous for fining or arresting Belarusians who have or show symbols in ‘protest’ colours.
On September 30, the writer’s case was considered in Frunzenski district court of Minsk. As a result, judge Ala Skuratovich imposed a hefty fine of 2,900 Belarusian rubles (over $1,100) on him.
Anatol Kudlasevich has a second-degree disability: he had one lung removed due to oncology disease. The man also complains of hypertension. However, when awaiting the court hearing, the writer had to spend a night in the notorious detention centre on Akrestsin Street.
“The father often has high blood pressure, he needs to regularly take his medicines, otherwise he starts to feel short of breath,” Kudlasevich’s son told the newspaper Nasha Niva.
Despite his disability, Anatol Kudlasevich was sentenced to 10 days in jail last year; the authorities accused him of rallying although the Minsker just took part in the collection of signatures for Lukashenka’s election opponent Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
In the spring of 2021, Kudlasevich‘s apartment was raided in connection with the so called Autukhovich case, but then the search was carried out quite calmly, the father was interrogated and released, the son added.
belsat.eu
