After the home search, the police came to his house. A criminal case has been against Maisey Mazko, an active opponent of the Ipower Battery Factory, allegedly for possession of ammunition. The man is now in the detention center of Brest. The accused would not plead guilty and claims that the last time he held weapon was in 1975.
Several days ago, traffic police officers, investigators and people in civilian clothes stopped and searched the car in which Mr Mazko was travelling. He works as a farm manager at a monastery. In his company car they found objects that look like cartridges, and even a briquette of an unknown substance. The police said it was explosives.
Next day, there was a search in the house of Mazko in the village of Telmy. The official representative of the Investigation Committee of the Brest region did not answer our calls. But he confirmed to colleagues from Radio Liberty that the activist is facing up to seven years in prison.
“A criminal case was brought against him under Part 2 of Article 295 of the Criminal Code. Mazko is detained and is in a temporary detention center. ”
The local human rights activist Raman Kislyak, who was present at the car search, said the case was being fabricated.
Raman Kislyak asserts that Mazko had been watched for several days in a row and adds: the authorities are thus pressing on the activist for active struggle against the battery factory. Moreover, other public figures like bloggers Alyaksandr Kabanau and Syarhei Pyatrukhin have been subjected to prosecution.
“Looks like the White Legion case, such a clumsy job. He is the oldest of us all, maybe his health is worse. But it seems to me that this is a very unfortunate choice, because he is a believer, he is an intelligent person, everyone knows him as such a good and benevolent person,” says blogger Syarhey Pyatrukhin.
He added that the authorities are nervous, because they cannot stop public outrage, which for more than a year has resulted in street protests.
Vitaut Siuchyk, belsat.eu
