Hleb Rubanau Fined $ 486
- 13.05.2019, 16:18
The IT consultant accused of “extremism” is most decisive in denying his guilt.
IT consultant Hleb Rubanau was found guilty of “distribution of extremist materials” and fined 40 basic units(1,020 rubles), HRC Viasna writes.
We remind that Rubanau was accused of posting on Facebook the A ** AB abbreviation, recognized as “extremist,” on March 5.
“Finally it became known that I was accused of writing a four-letter abbreviation under a post (in the comments) on the Hleb Rubanau page. And technically it looks like this: the comment on behalf of Hleb Rubanau under the post contains a link to another Facebook post. Facebook automatically displays the preview of the post to which the link goes, and within this preview you can see the photo on which a poster with the abbreviation has been found. And even if the second user changes the photo in his message (for example, adds an image with a forbidden abbreviation), it will also change in the user's link with the name Hleb Rubanau, – Rubanau said before the start of the court hearing. – I have a lot of questions and I will try to insist on their consideration at this meeting.”
Hleb pleads not guilty, because the person who posted the image with the abbreviation on Facebook has not been identified. As an IT specialist, Hleb believes that the Ministry of Internal Affairs cannot identify such persons in principle. Only the US Facebook segment has such data. The only information that Belarusian security officials along with Facebook can accurately establish is the user's IP address. However, Facebook Corporation is unlikely to disclose to Belarusian law enforcement agencies from which IP address the comment had been sent. Even if it does, it is almost impossible to prove what person had posted the message. This can be any person who, for example, knows the wi-fi password. So there is almost no opportunity to identify a person on the network, unless the case is exceptional and Interpol gets involved in it.
The IT consultant refused to answer the judge's question whether he is registered on Facebook, since he does not have to prove his innocence and testify against himself.
The trial started at 10:00, Judge Vera Halaukova tried the case.
At the beginning of the meeting, Hleb Rubanau filed a petition to call witnesses – Major Varanishcha and Captain Bely. The first one had actually detained Hleb and brought the action against him. The second one is mentioned as an executor in a number of case documents. The judge granted the petition.
Hleb's second petition concerned the visual examination of the case files in order to make sure that the judge’s documents were the ones Hleb and his lawyer had got acquainted with in the police department. The judge granted the petition as well.
Another written petition asked to consider the legality of detaining Hleb on May 7. He considers it arbitrary, committed in violation of article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Hleb also asked to recognize his right to get compensation for the harm caused by the detention. And, finally, he filed a petition to examine for falsification the protocol of inspection of objects and documents dated March 14, which was in the case files.
“The protocol contains the following date and time: March 5, 2019, 15:13. Facebook records this time as the time of leaving the comment with the link. But the screenshot of the Facebook page also shows that physically it was taken 9 weeks after March 5. I’ve checked the calendar – this is May 7, the day of my detention. Thus, there is a high probability that the inspection report (which is supposedly the basis for commencing the administrative process) was drawn up after I was detained, or directly before my detention, and not on March 14,” – Hleb Rubanau said.
Lawyer Aliaksandr Haliyeu asked to send the abovementioned protocol for examination not to the Savietski district police department, but to the Investigation Committee of Minsk.
At the trial, senior district police officer of the Savietski district police department, police major Dzianis Varanishcha said that on May 7, 2019, at about 4-5 am, he detained Hleb Rubanau in the courtyard of his house in Hamarnik Street on suspicion of committing an administrative offense.
“Your car aroused suspicion: the tire was flat, the roofing and the hood were damaged. You were called for inspection by the duty officer,” – the district police officer explained.
He confirmed that Hleb agreed to go to the police department voluntarily, but at that, the detention took place after getting into the police car. The administrative process began on March 14, from the moment of drawing up the protocol of examining the Facebook page. He claimed that the time of the page examination was 16:09. However, that information is different from what was written in the inspection report.
And one more thing: on May 10, the materials were sent to the court, but Rubanau and the lawyer were allowed to get acquainted with them only on May 11. Varanishcha said that Hleb had been detained on suspicion of committing an administrative offense, but the protocol stateed that it had been done in order to ensure his participation in the administrative process.
“This is not a contradiction, but a clarification,” – the district police officer explained.
He did not know how it had been established that the Hleb Rubanau account on Facebook belongs to Hleb Rubanau, as the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus was dealing with that.
The next witness, district police officer Aliaksandr Bely, explained that he knew Rubanau, because he had drawn up the protocol on an administrative offense. The witness also claimed that Rubanau had been invited to come to the police, including by sending a summons by mail.
Hleb Rubanau filed a motion to summon the head of the Department to counter extremism of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which had established Rubanau’s identity on Facebook. In addition, Rubanau’s identity was allegedly established on March 18, and an inspection report was drawn up on March 14. However, the court rejected the petition.
Hleb was convinced that the person who had committed the offense had not been established, and his public danger was very small. Therefore, he believed that the administrative process against him had to be stopped due to the absence of an offense.
In turn, lawyer Aliaksandr Haliyeu drew attention to the complete incompetence and legal nihilism of the MIA employees. Because of that, a person who has a disabled mother of group 1 and a four-year-old child, had been forced to stay awake for the last few days, to suffer from increased pressure, and his whole family had been living in tense atmosphere.
However, Judge Vera Halaukova considered that that was not enough, and fined Hleb Rubanau 40 basic units(1020 rubles).