Belarusian Judges May Repeat the Fate of Josef Altstätter

• Andrei Zhvaleuski
• 8.02.2021, 9:06

These are the main results of the day of solidarity with Belarus.

I think I speak too little about how people in other countries support us. I have an excuse: I want us to rely more on ourselves than on foreign friends. But today, an exception can be made.

First, due to severe frosts in the country, more or less massive actions did not take place. In the morning, there were several small marches - "Sharyki" and Velazavod came to the tractor plant, people came out with slogans in Chyzhouka. Inhabitants of my former district (Zakharava-Antonauskaya) walked with a huge flag. In the evening, pickets continued in Lebiadziny, Malinauka, on Filimonava Street. By the way, last night, I walked across Zachad and Sukharava and felt joy about how many white-red-white pictures are on the walls. And not only pictures: a real white-red-white flag has been hanging on a favorite alley in a favorite park for the fourth day. There is lively traffic under it: old people with Scandinavian sticks, mums and dads with strollers, just passers-by. And nobody is snitching.

Secondly, the declared Day of Solidarity with Belarus took place. Honestly, I did not expect that there will be so many different things. The whole news feed is in white-red-white colors. Again, the Belarusian tricolor was lit up in Riga - this time with a special drone's help. We raised our flags in Warsaw, Budapest, Oslo, Tel Aviv, Bremen, Moscow, Gdansk, Winnepeg, Seattle, Taipei, Paris, Vilnius, Auckland, Kyiv, Wroclaw, Tallinn, Lviv, Hamburg, St. Petersburg, Bialystok, Budva... oh, not sure I mentioned everything.

That is, I am sure that not all of them.

By the way, sometimes, people lined up along with Russian flags and the slogans "Free Russia." Although, in my opinion, our protests are very different, and we will achieve the result in different ways. And at different times.

Politicians also talked a lot about Belarus, despite the weekend.

Yesterday, during an online conference of solidarity with Belarus, Vice-President of the European Parliament Nikola Bir proposed to impose sanctions against representatives of the Belarusian judicial system. By the way, dear judges, especially those who rivet cases without regard to procedural norms - have you heard about the process "United States of America against Josef Altstötter and others"? No? I give you a hint: it took place in the city of Nuremberg in 1946. Soon after the "big" Nuremberg trials. In its course, high-ranking Nazi judges were brought to justice. Out of 16, four were acquitted. The rest received real sentences. And these are the Germans who carefully observed the letter of the law - albeit a Nazi one. Belarusian "judges" with their ingenious "This is unimportant!" in response to evidence of innocence, with interrogations of suspicious men in balaclavas - there will not be 16 defendants.

The US Embassy posted on its website an appeal in support of the Belarusian people: "Fundamental freedoms are the inalienable right of all peoples, and it is long overdue to ensure them in an independent, sovereign Belarus."

The heads of European diplomatic missions, including the European Union Ambassador to Belarus Dirk Schuebel, met with relatives of the Belarusians who died during the protests, as well as with the relatives of several Belarusian political prisoners. The EU's Facebook page commented on the meeting as follows: "#WeStandWithBelarus on this Day of Solidarity and every day until all the political prisoners walk free and all the perpetrators have been held to account."

The President of the European Council Charles Michel wrote on his Twitter account: "Six months have passed, and the people of Belarus are still demanding that their voices are heard. We continue to support you. There can be no violence against peaceful demonstrators, and the European Union demands the release of all political prisoners. This crisis can only end through full peaceful dialogue."

The Baltic states' foreign ministers made a joint statement: "Since August, the Belarusian people have been peacefully speaking for freedom and democracy. Week after week, month after month, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were deeply impressed by his courage and efforts to secure fundamental rights and free and fair elections. This courage must confront the brutality and lawlessness of the Belarusian authorities. The goal is clear: to suppress the demands of peaceful demonstrators, deny them their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and suppress their legitimate demands for free and fair elections."

The Mayor of Vilnius ordered on the evening of February 7 to paint the Lithuanian capital's main bridges - Mindaugas, Zeleny, Bely, and Zverinetsky - in the colors of the Belarusian national flag. And at the bus stops, the inscriptions "Vilnius loves Belarus" were displayed. The deputy mayor called on: "Brothers Belarusians, don't give up, victory is coming!"

The Lithuanian MEP and former Prime Minister of Lithuania Andrius Kubilius plans to get the European Union to include more than 250 Belarusian officials in the sanctions list.

Not only politicians supported us. For example, writer Viktor Shenderovich published a letter to Aliaksandr Lukashenka: "You still won't be able to pretend that Maryja Kalesnikava does not exist, and any conviction will once again draw the world's attention to your spiritualized physiognomy, radiant with accumulated good - and to the country that you continue to love in public, not being particularly interested in its feelings."

And even the Norwegian company Yara, an important partner of Belaruskali, posted on the official website a special statement for the International Day of Solidarity with Belarus. "The European Works Council [EWC] Yara supports the people of Belarus by celebrating the Day of Solidarity with Belarus on February 7. EWC Yara supports the Belarusian people's struggle for democracy and condemns political repression and related violence and imprisonment. Human rights must always be respected."

Several significant events took place on our holiday of solidarity.

In the Czech Republic, the first application was filed against the Belarusian punishers, which must be considered under universal jurisdiction. We are talking about torture, in which the head of the Hrodna AMAP Viktar Krautsevich was involved.

Well, everyone who wanted to support with deeds, not words, went to the marathon. Its length was to be described by the numbers 2, 3, 3, and 4.

For the sake of interest, I looked at how much my "Chronicle" takes - already clearly more than 2334 characters. 782,154, to be precise.

It doesn't matter how fast you go.

The main thing is not to stop.

Andrei Zhvaleuski, Facebook