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Opposition activist in Navapolatsk may be questioned over photograph in support of Byalyatski

An opposition activist in Navapolatsk, Vitsyebsk region, has been ordered to present himself at the local police station on Thursday over a photograph posted in support of imprisoned human rights defender Ales Byalyatski on a website, BelaPAN said.

On Wednesday, Syarhey Malashonak, a member of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, found a summons from the police station in his mailbox. However, the summons contained flaws and did not explain why he had to visit the station.

"On Tuesday, the district police officer visited my mother to ask about my whereabouts," Mr. Malashonak told BelaPAN. "Later in the day, someone phoned me from an unknown number. When I called back, a man picked up the phone, introduced himself as a police officer and warned that there would be a manhunt unless I came to the police station. I replied that I wouldn't go anywhere until I received a proper summons."

The photograph in question depicts Mr. Malasyonak displaying Mr. Byalyatski's image in front of the police station.

On January 5, three human rights activists in Hrodna were sentenced to fines over similar photographs posted on the web.

Ales Byalyatski, chairman of an unregistered Belarusian human rights organization called Vyasna (Spring) and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, was arrested in Minsk on August 4, 2011.

On November 24, 2011, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on a charge of large-scale tax evasion. The charge stemmed from information about his bank accounts abroad, which was thoughtlessly provided by authorities in Lithuania and Poland under interstate legal assistance agreements. During his trial, Mr. Byalyatski insisted that the money transferred by various foundations to his bank accounts abroad had been intended to finance Vyasna's activities and therefore could not be viewed as his income subject to taxation.