Court hearings of Leanid Sudalenka, Maryia Tarasenka and Taciana Lasica held behind closed doors
On 3 September 2021, the first court hearing regarding the case of human rights defenders Leanid Sudalenka, Maryia Tarasenka and Taciana Lasica took place at Centralny District Court in Gomel. The human rights defenders face charges of “organising, financing, training and preparation of actions grossly violating public order and financing such activities” under parts 1 and 2 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code. If convicted, they could face up to three years of imprisonment.
On 18 January 2021, human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka was detained in Gomel as part of an investigation, under article 342 of the Criminal Code, relating to the “organisation and preparation of actions, grossly violating public order, or active participation in them.” On the same day, Leanid Sudalenka’s colleague Maryia Tarasenka was also detained and held for three days before being released on 21 January 2021.
Maryia Tarasenka is a woman human rights defender and a volunteer of the Gomel branch of the HRC Viasna. She has actively opposed the unpopular presidential tax decree against “social parasites” targeting those who do not have an official job.
On 3 September 2021, the first court hearing regarding the case of human rights defenders Leanid Sudalenka, Maryia Tarasenka and Taciana Lasica took place at Centralny District Court in Gomel. The human rights defenders face charges of “organising, financing, training and preparation of actions grossly violating public order and financing such activities” under parts 1 and 2 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code. If convicted, they could face up to three years of imprisonment.
Only a limited number of people were permitted to attend the hearing, including pro-government media representatives and 5 individuals. The court security officers explained such restrictions were due to the difficult epidemiological situation in connection to COVID-19. Soon after the first court session started, judge Siarhei Salouski upheld the prosecution’s request to hold the hearings behind closed doors despite the defence lawyers’ protest and those present in the court room were asked to leave. The prosecution stated that an open trial might disclose “evidence containing confidential financial information relating to the movement of funds in accounts, and endanger the safety of witnesses and other participants in the criminal process, including their family members and close relatives.” The defendants lawyers’ disagreed and assured the prosecution that there were no witnesses in the case who had reported that they were afraid of disclosing their data, and the case itself did not contain state secrets. The lawyers’ also suggested that those witnesses who did have reservations could be heard behind closed doors, but insisted that there is no reason to make the whole trial process closed. Front Line Defenders also condems the decision to hold the hearings of the three above-mentioned human rights defenders behind closed doors.
At the beginning of the hearing Leanid Sudalenka’s lawyer appealed to the court regarding the fact that the human rights defender’s notes, paper and pen had been confiscated, however, judge Siarhei Salouski did not grant him access to these materials. Earlier, in August 2021, the same judge prohibited Leanid Sudalenka to meet with his family, even though the chairman of the Central District Court Victor Kazachok had approved this request. Colleagues of Leanid Sudalenka believe that Judge Siarhei Salouski’s decisions against the human rights defender seem to be motivated by personal reasons. In the summer of 2020, Leanid Sudalenka was involved in submitting a complaint on behalf Gomel citizen Valery Smian to the UN Human Rights Committee regarding a court fine issued by judge Siarhei Salouski which violated his right to freedom of assembly.
The evidence used to support the accusation against Leanid Sudalenka are connected to his human rights work, particularly his online activity. For example, on 25 October 2020 the human rights defender published a post on his Facebook page in which he called to meet with Gomel activist Maria Tulzhenkova who had recently been released from administrative detention. This post was subsequently used as evidence of “organisation of gross violation of order”. The other Facebook post in question was published on 21 November 2020, in which he offered to help the family of an individual who had been accused of “mass riots” and was in pre-trial detention, to buy firewood for the winter. Moreover, the investigation qualifies Leanid Sudalenka’s activities such as payment of fines, state fees, lawyers' services, and food bills in the temporary detention facility, as well as a seminar on digital security for human rights defenders, as “financing a gross violation of order and training its participants.”
On 18 January 2021, human rights defender and head of Human Rights Center Viasna (HRC Viasna) branch in Gomel Leanid Sudalenka and HRC Viasna volunteer Maryia Tarasenka were detained in Gomel. Earlier on the 5 January 2021, law enforcement officers searched Leanid Sudalenka’s house and the “Gomel social-political center”, where the office of the Gomel branch of HRC Viasna was located. On 21 January 2021, HRC Viasna volunteer Taciana Lasica was detained by law enforcement officers at the Minsk airport while attempting to travel from Belarus to Lithuania. Maryia Tarasenka was held for three days before being released on 21 January 2021 after she agreed to sign a pledge not to leave the country. Taciana Lasica and Leanid Sudalenka have been held in pre-trial detention centre 3 in Gomel for seven months.
Since May 2021, members of HRC Viasna have been targeted, arbitrarily detained and subjected to judicial harassment for their human rights work. After the massive raids by the law enforcement on 14 July 2021, more than a dozen prominent Belarusian human rights defenders were detained throughout the country, including HRC Viasna members Uladzimir Labkovich, Valiantsin Stefanovich, Andrei Paluda, Ales Bialiatski, Alena Laptsionak and Viktar Sazonau. Andrei Paluda, Alena Laptsionak and Viktar Sazonau were later released with travel restricted by the investigator without the decision of the court. Seven members of the organisation and volunteers are currently in jail: Maria Rabkova, Andrey Chapyuk, Leanid Sudalenka, Taciana Lasica, Uladzimir Labkovich, Valiantsin Stefanovich and Ales Bialiatski.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned by the ongoing judicial prosecution of human rights defenders Leanid Sudalenka, Taciana Lasica and Maryia Tarasenka and other members of HRC Viasna. The initial charges against the three human rights defenders and their detention appears to be an attempt to criminalise their legitimate human rights activities and the work of HRC Viasna. Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Belarus to immediately release Leanid Sudalenka and Taciana Lasica, drop the charges against Leanid Sudalenka, Maryia Tarasenka and Taciana Lasica, and cease the targeting human rights defenders, HRC Viasna and other human rights organisations in the country.
On 18 January 2021, human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka was detained in Gomel as part of an investigation, under article 342 of the Criminal Code, relating to the “organisation and preparation of actions, grossly violating public order, or active participation in them.” On the same day, Leanid Sudalenka’s colleague Maryia Tarasenka was also detained and held for three days before being released on 21 January 2021.
Leanid Sudalenka is a prominent human rights defender, lawyer, and heads the Gomel branch of the Human Rights Centre Viasna (HRC Viasna). He is also an active campaigner and advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus. Leanid Sudalenka is laureate of the 2018 ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ Human Rights Prize of the French Republic. Maryia Tarasenka is a woman human rights defender and a volunteer of the Gomel branch of the HRC Viasna. She has actively opposed the unpopular presidential tax decree against “social parasites” targeting those who do not have an official job. The Gomel branch of the HRC Viasna provides legal support to victims of human rights violations and helps them to prepare individual complaints to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
On 18 January 2021, Leanid Sudalenka was detained as he made his way to his office as part of an investigation, under article 342 of the Criminal Code, linking him to “group actions which gravely breach public order”. That morning, immediately after his arrest, the human rights defender was taken to the Investigative Committee’s city office for questioning. He was only permitted access to his lawyer at 5:30 p.m. that evening. During his interrogation that day, an ambulance had to be called to the Investigative Committee’s office to assist Leanid Sudalenka. He is currently being held in detention centre number 3 in Gomel. Later that evening, woman human rights defender Maryia Tarasenka’s house was searched by law enforcement representatives. The woman human rights defender was detained and held in the preliminary detention facility in Gomel for three days until she was released on 21 January 2021.
On 5 January 2021, law enforcement officers searched the “Gomel social-political center”, where the office of the Gomel branch of HRC Viasna is located, as a part of the investigation in the criminal case against activist Uladzimir Niapomniashchykh, who has been accused of “allegedly threatening a prosecutor” under article 366 of the Criminal Code. The search lasted almost 10 hours, during which office equipment, bank cards and over 200 files on cases of repressed participants of peaceful protests in 2020 were confiscated. Human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka was present for the entirety of the raid, after which he was taken to the local Directorate for Combating Organised Crime. He was later released. On the same day, law enforcement officers carried out a separate search of the human rights defender’s home and confiscated his personal laptop.
Another local activist from Rechytsa in the Gomel region, Taciana Lasica, was also detained on 21 January at the airport in Minsk and was brought to the preliminary detention facility in Gomel. Taciana Lasica is an activist of the campaign “Tell the Truth”, and she has cooperated with the Gomel branch of the HRC Viasna. Her house was also searched as a part of the investigation in the criminal case against activist Uladzimir Niapomniashchykh.
Members of HRC Viasna have been under pressure since early May 2020. Many local representatives have been arbitrarily detained and subjected to judicial harassment or administrative arrests. Since the results of the 2020 Presidential elections were announced on 9 August, the number of acts of reprisal against and judicial harassment of human rights defenders and journalists from the law enforcement representatives in Belarus has increased significantly. On 12 January 2021, human rights defender Andrei Alexandrov was arrested under article 342 of the Criminal Code, part 2, on the suspicion of “education or other preparation of persons for participation in group actions that grossly violate public order, as well as financing or other material support of such activities”.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned by the detention of human rights defenders Leanid Sudalenka and Maryia Tarasenka. Front Line defenders believes Leanid Sudalenka and Maryia Tarasenka are being targeted solely as a result of their work in promoting and protecting human rights in Belarus.
