English

People fighting «unfair» court rulings prevented from meeting Lukashenka

A group of people fighting what they view as unfair court rulings in cases involving themselves or their close relatives made an unsuccessful attempt on Friday to meet with Alyaksandr Lukashenka to hand him a petition calling for a review of the cases, BelaPAN said.

Rights defender and legal expert Tamara Syarhey said, "Today, when the president was delivering his annual address to the nation and legislature, we also wanted to meet with the head of state to give our own address. For this purpose some 20 people came to Minsk from different areas of Belarus. For the last few years they have been pushing for the settlement of their specific cases but have received nothing but formal replies from courts, prosecutor's offices and the Presidential Administration. We also wanted to be heard. But unfortunately as we approached the House of Government and tried to introduce ourselves, plainclothesmen swooped on us like birds of prey. They exhibited so much aggression and were so much reluctant to listen to anything as if we were some criminals. They pushed us in the backs until we reached Myasnikow Square and kept saying, 'Don't stop, don't stop!' as if anything terrible could happen."

"And there are pension-age people, honored veterans among us. It is their hard work that created this state, it is our ancestors who built this House of Government. And it has turned out that in present-day Belarus we are divided into those sitting in the bright and clean Oval Hall and listening to the president and those who are kept out of even the threshold of this building. But according to the constitution we are all equal before the law," she said.

"They threatened us that they would call a team from a psychiatric hospital and take us to the hospital. And the two reporters who were accompanying us and performing their professional duty were detained without any proper grounds."

"Unfortunately, this 39th appeal to the president will be sent to him by mail. But we will not stop and will press for the restoration of our rights that have been violated. This is the land of our ancestors and we will fight to ensure that there is law and order here," Ms. Syarhey concluded.

Some members of the group spoke about their cases.