Dzmitry Palijenka was detained on March 20, 2019 on suspicion of committing a crime under part 3 of Article 339 of the Criminal Code (“Extremely gross misconduct”). He was accused of pepper spraying a drunk man at the entrance of the block of flats where the activist was expecting a friend. The man tried to warn him against smoking and initiated the conflict. Only a week later the police raided Dzmitry’s flat and detained him.
Having spent about 20 days in detention, he was finally charged with three crimes: extremely gross misconduct, desecration of buildings or other structures with cynical inscriptions or drawings, and inciting racial, national or religious hatred or discord; intentional actions aimed at inciting racial, national or religious hatred or discord, humiliation of national honour and dignity.
The two latter crimes regard an anti-police graffiti which was the reason for his detention in January this year. The investigation must think that humiliating a cop equals inciting social harted.
Dzmitry Palijenka has been released from prison on October 24 last year where he spent about 3 years for allegedly using violence against a road policeman who tried to stop the Critical Mass action. He was detained multiple times in the last 6 months. We believe, the prosecution is part of the plan to stop Dzmitry’s anarchist activity.
We call for solidarity actions, donations and letter support.
Dzmitry stays in the Minsk pre-trial detention center, and you can write to him at the address:
220050 Minsk, ul. Volodarskogo, 2, SIZO-1
Belarus
Polienko Dmitry Aleksandrovich