One year has passed since Brest started residents protesting against the construction of a battery factory in the city. As the city authorities do not authorize protests, people do not make speeches or chant any slogans – they just feed pigeons or carry baloons.
On January 5, activists came to the would-be plant to mark the sad anniversary. Some took their children with them; and the kids made a snowman. Suprisingly, on January 30, Brest resident Yuliya Nichyparuk will be tried for her contributing to modeling the snowman.
“Our children made a snowman, we helped decorate it. Later I was summoned to the police station; they made a protocol under Article 23.34 of the Administrative Code (violation of rules of mass events holding). The protocol says that there was a leaflet and sticker on it. I think it is absurd. I wonder what the case will come to in court,” the woman told Belsat.
Moreover, another four protocols under Article 22.9 of the Administrative Code (illegal production and distribution of media products) have been drawn upon Belsat TV contributors Ales Lyauchuk and Milana Kharytonava. The journalists will be tried for their coverage of December’s protest rallies. Lyauchuk and Kharytonava were spotted working in Lenin Square and interviewinglocal residents; later, a video appeared on belsat.eu. The journalistic duo has already had seven trials over making reports about the development in Brest; the fines imposed on them totals to $6,700.
The battery plant near the city is being built in the free economic zone Brest by a Chinese corporation. The project was commissioned by iPower company. It is planned that the plant will have a full cycle of production of lead-acid batteries.
Residents of the city and surrounding villages believe that the production would harmfully impact their health and the environment. The project opponents say the construction has a number of violations, almost 37 thousand signatures against the plant were sent to Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s administration in February. But the government commission did not find any violations in the implementation of the project.
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