Baranavichy activist fined for mocking at fascism on Internet

Baranavichy Diatsrcit and City Court sentenced activist Illya Syanko to a 115 rubles (5 base amounts) fine on December 5. He was returned guilty of public demonstration of Nazi symbols, human rights website Viasna reports. Judge Yuliyana Shcherba also ordered to confiscate the hard disk drive found during the search in the activist’s flat. 

Syanko admitted that he had uploaded some photos to VKontakte but pled not guilty. He was mocking at fascism with the help of those photos, the young man claimed. Furthermore, all the photos were deleted long ago. Yet, the very fact of uploading those photos was enough to charge the young man with the demonstration of Nazi symbols, the judge explained. 

Illya Syanko is going to appeal the sentence. 

The trial was connected with the detention of Russian philosopher and historian Pyotr Ryabov, the young man believes. The Russian came to Belarus to give lectures on anarchism and was detained by the police in Baranavichy on October 10. Syanko was accompanying Ryabov to the railway station after a lecture when he got detained together with the lecturer.

The Baranavichy activist was interrogated about issues not connected with the case, was being forced to cooperate and was even beaten on the head when he refused, right defenders report. He was accused of petty hooliganism but the court dismissed the case in the absence of crime in the act.

Illya Syanko’s house was searched on October 12. The young man was suspected of the distribution and demonstration of Nazi symbols. An administrative violation report was drawn up and the hard disk drive from his computer was sent to an expertise.