Jailed member of the Belarusian Opposition Coordination Council Presidium declares hunger strike over criminal charges
Belarusian lawyer and Opposition Coordination Council Presidium member Maxim Znak has gone on hunger strike in pretrial detention after being charged with inciting threats to national security, reports the Belarusian news outlet TUT.by, citing Znak’s defense lawyer, Dmitry Layevsky.
According to Layevsky, Znak “came to the conclusion” that in Belarus, mechanisms for protecting human rights don’t work, therefore, going on hunger strike in pretrial detention is one of the “few remaining ways to fight against lawlessness and injustice.”
It’s unclear from the charges which of Znak’s statements were considered threats to national security by the Belarusian Investigative Committee, Laevsky underscored.
“As Maxim Znak explained, his refusal of food is intended to encourage everyone, especially law enforcement, to recall the spiritual and moral values upon which the law is based, and not to destroy them,” Laevsky said.
Opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova (Maryia Kalesnikava), who is also a member of the Opposition Coordination Council Presidium, was charged with inciting actions that threaten national security on September 16.
The founding of the Opposition Coordination Council was initiated by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya), Alexander Lukashenko’s main competitor in the 2020 presidential election. The council’s declared aim is ensuring a peaceful transfer of power and new presidential elections in Belarus.
The council’s presidium includes seven people. In the month since the council was established, six of them have been either placed under arrest, forced to leave the country, or forcibly removed from Belarus.
The Opposition Coordination Council
After the Belarusian opposition founded its Coordination Council for the peaceful transfer of power in August 2020, Belarus’s Attorney General declared that its creation and activities constituted an attempt to seize power in Belarus. The Belarusian Investigative Committee launched a criminal case over “public calls to seize power.” Then, in September, it referred to an investigation over threats to national security (Section 3, Article 361 of the Belarusian Criminal Code). The Investigative Committee has yet to clarify the relationship between the two cases.
Article 361
Article 361 of the Belarusian Criminal Code covers “calls to perform acts detrimental to the external security of the Republic of Belarus.” Section one refers to “public calls to seize state power or to forcibly change the constitutional system,” or calls to commit high treason, terrorist acts, acts of sabotage, or other acts that threaten national security. Section three, which opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova is being charged under, refers to calls to commit the aforementioned acts using the mass media or the Internet.
Kolesnikova’s detention
Maria Kolesnikova was kidnapped in downtown Minsk on September 7 and arrested at the border with Ukraine the next day. According to her colleagues, Belarusian officials allegedly hoped to force her out of the country, but she ripped up her passport before reaching the border checkpoint, preventing herself from leaving Belarus. On September 8, reports emerged that Kolesnikova was being held in a pre-trial detention center in Minsk. On September 12, her lawyer confirmed that she had been transported to a jail in Zhodino.