Stefanovich: There will be repressions, and they will be brutal
The people who were sentenced for participation in the demonstration on December 19 and lost their jobs or were expelled from universities after release, address to the human rights activists.
"A guy called - they expel him from a college. A doctor called, they fire him from the 5th hospital. He works there for the first year upon assignment. The situation is such that if they fire him for unjustified absence at the working place, he will have to pay money for his education, according to the regulation of the Council of Ministers", – the human rights activist Valiantsin Stefanovich has told to Euroradio.
The young doctor will have to pay for 6 years of education in case he is fired upon the article. This makes about 10 thousand dollars, states the human rights activist.
To his opinion, being arrested is a justified reason for failure to appear at the working place. The authors of the official comments to the Labour Code agree with him. However, the courts have another opinion.
Valiantsin Stefanovich: "There is a set court practice in our country. A person was fired from a bank for unjustified absence at the working place in 2006. He served 15 days of detention. We started to claim this in court - we motivated our claim by the fact that it was not an unjustified absence due to his own wish, but a justified reason to miss work. According to the labour legislation, an unjustified absence at the working place should have a corresponding intention. There is an official comment to the Labour Code. One of the authors claims that administrative detention is not considered as unjustified absence at the working place. We told this in court, but the district court, the city court and the Supreme Court resolved that administrative arrest is equal to unjustified absence at the working place".
An unjustified absence is a purposeful non-attendance of work. It turns out, that a person attended the demonstration on purpose, in order to be detained and fail to attend his work this way?
At the same time, students can be expelled not only for unjustified absence or failure to pass credits, but for the arrest itself, continues Valiantsin Stefanovich.
"There is a regulation in the majority of charters and internal rules of higher educational establishments, approved by rectors' offices, that commitment of an administrative offence can be the reason for expel".
According to the human rights activists, new facts of discharges and expels of participants of the demonstration on December 19 become known. To the opinion of Valiantsin Stefanovich, there will be more repressions and they will be brutal.
"Also, there was information that the personnel department of the tractor plant requested information about those who failed to appear at their working places on Monday, December 20. There was also an incident with a lawyer in Hrodna. She served 10 days of detention, and her son - 15 days. After that, they deprived her from the lawyer's licence. So, we see there is a wave of after-arrest repressions".
Let us remind you, more than 600 people were arrested after the demonstration on December 19. However, neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs, nor detention centers or courts named the exact number of the arrestees or provided any official lists.
