‘Picket’: Married couple facing trial for posting photo with white-red-white flag
On May 25, Hrodna-based activists Syarhei and Volha Verameyenka will stand trial for… taking a photo.
Syarhei and Volha, members of the Belarusian Christian Democracy, had their photo taken when holding a white-red-white flag in solidarity with Vasil Papkou who was serving 15-day arrest for using the historical symbol of Belarusians. After the photo was posted on Facebook, they were accused of ‘unauthorized picketing’.
“I wonder why the police never charge, for example, bikers, who organise motor races with St. George’s ribbons and Soviet flags?” Syarhei Verameyenka told Belsat.
According to him, a special order to persecute them was given by Hrodna authorities. Policeman Kozlovski drew up a protocol on the Verameyenkas.
“It is a perfect storm of iniquity. The policemen do not keep within the law,” says Syarhei.
According to his wife Volha, although they had repeatedly taken photos of themselves with a white-red-white flag in their hands before and posted the pictures on the internet, they had never faced any problems over it.
“I do not understand what is going on in our country. Do I have to ask the permission of the executive committee to take a photo? If I had a Russian tricolor and Soviet symbols of the USSR, no one would have charged me. It takes 5-10 seconds to photograph; it is not a picket,” the woman says.
In March, the activists participated in a ‘non-parasite’ protest rally in Hrodna.
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On 19 September 1991, the white-red-white flag and emblem Pahonya (Pursuit) were officially recognized state symbols of the Republic of Belarus. Such resolution was passed by the Supreme Soviet of the 12th convocation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But after the 1995 referendum, they were replaced by those reminiscent of Soviet symbolism. The white-red-white flag has been often associated with the opposition to the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
belsat.eu
