Mazyr man in wheelchair stays indoors for year, fined for jaywalking

Vital Kavalyou lives in an old two-storey house. There is no lift or ramp. Social workers do shopping and cook for him. Vital says he has not been outdoors for more than a year.  

Vital is a handicapped person of the 1st disability group, his social pension is BYN217. BYN50  was deducted from it all of a sudden. It turned out that the man… had been fined for jaywalking! Vital could not do it because he cannot leave his flat on his own. This is an alibi!

Vital did not receive any notifications simply because his old address was indicated in the police report. He moved several years ago. The man learnt about the fine 8 months later when the sum was deducted from his pension.

It turned out that the man was fined for jaywalking. Supposedly, somebody told policemen his name and address when caught jaywalking. That person also had to know his date of birth.

Furthermore, ‘the double’ got fined for being drunk in another part of Mazyr. Even the local police are sure that it was Vital Kavalyou, handicapped man of the 1st disability group.

Vital has already lodged a complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office: “I sent them an inquiry asking to get my money back but they told me that I had to go to court which I am planning to do.”

There was no mistake, deputy head of the ideology department of Mazyr District Department of the Interior Alyaksandr Illyuk believes:

"He can drive and walk just fine. He has been fined for similar violations in different parts of Mazyr many times. It is not 100% true that he is wheelchaired. He can walk on stitches and even without them. He was registered in our criminal inspectorate. It is a lie that he is wheelchaired.”

Vital can only move using his wheelchair, Mazyr Social Service Centre assures. He cannot walk on stitches:

"He can hardly move on his own and only in a wheelchair. He cannot go down the stairs alone. Social workers cannot help him go for a walk since there is no lift in the house. Why don’t the policemen who detained him come and look at him to decide whether it really was him?"

Mazyr Driving Inspectorate is conducting a check-up now, head of the driving inspectorate department Dzmitry Nemtsau said. All the detained must be looked up in the data base but anything could happen, he said.

“It is possible that the police did not look up the person in the data base.”

There have been similar incidents before, deputy hуad of Mazyr District Department of the Interior Alyaksandr Navumik said. “Sometimes people name a person they bear resemblance to. But lies can be revealed when you use the data base and look at photos. The problem is that he was detained by policemen of Yelsk Department of the Interior.”