Football fan sues police lieutenant colonel over Pahonia scarf
On the evening of August 26, 2014, BATE were at home, playing Slovan from Bratislava. BATE then won 3:0 and made it into the group stage of the Champions League, but a fan Syarhei Bakhun saw almost none of it -- in the middle of the first half, he was removed from the grand stand by the police and held in the stadium-based police station until almost the end of the match.
The reason for it was a white and red scarf with "Pursuit". Bakhun was kept in the stadium police station, until there came a major of the Barysau police Vyachaslau Paulavets (in August of 2014 he was still a major) and openly declared: "Hide the scarf under the jacket, or you will have problems." The policeman admitted of personally giving the order to "remove" Bakhun from the grand stand -- allegedly for "The Pursuit" being an unregistered symbol which had no place at the Champions League match. The fan decided he wanted to return to his wife with the child that night, and not to go to the local police station. Thus he hid the scarf under his jacket and went to watch the last minutes of the game.
"I want the court to recognize the illegal actions of the police officers and I want them to apologized to me, in writing," said the desperate fan.
"They kept him for the chief to come and hold a conversation. He came in about an hour - Major Vyachaslau Paulavets. He said that on my scarf there was a "Pursuit" and it is an unregistered symbol, if I did not want problems, I had to hide it under a jacket. I argued with him a bit. But in the end I put the scarf under my jacket - I have a wife and a child. I did not want to go to the police station. Then I was allowed back to the grand stand. But the match was coming to an end."
The first hearing of the case "Bakhun versus Barysau police" took place only on 2 February 2016. All this time (and almost 1,5 years passed), Syarhei had a written correspondence with the Barysau police, trying to find out the reason for detention, with reference to a specific item in at least one code. All his attempts are useless. The best result Bakhun could get from the police was that the "Pursuit" on his scarf was painted in ... colors of the national flag. Bakhun hired a lawyer, wrote a complaint to the prosecutor of Minsk region and the head of Internal Affairs of Minsk City Executive Committee. The result was the same. After a public statement by the Minister of Internal Affairs Ihar Shunevich that the "Pursuit" was not a prohibited symbol and fans could not be punished for it in the stadiums, Syarhei Bakhun wrote a statement to the court of Barysau district.
A Euroradio journalist asked the minister, if it was an offense to wear a T-shirt with "Pursuit" or the white-red-white scarf. Shunevich said that all the possible violations of public order, punishable by the administrative responsibility, are prescribed in the Administrative Code.
Vyachaslau Paulavets did not show up at the first meeting. He sent an explanation, claiming he was "studying" and asked to postpone the review. Therefore, the meeting of Syarhei Bakhun and his lawyer with the judge took place without the police.
"The judge examined the materials, which are already in the case, asked if we wanted to add anything, what witnesses to hear. We said that we wanted to hear the testimony of police officers who participated in my arrest," said Syarhei.
He also said that to explain their behavior the police added a description of the "Pursuit", taken from some Russian site. "They printed the page from the site and added it to their explanations. And there was writen that "Pursuit" is a Lithuanian coat of arms, used by collaborators during the German occupation. In general, this print spoke of "Belarussia" instead of Belarus," said Syarhei.
Judge of the Barysau district court scheduled a hearing with the participation of Lieutenant Colonel Paulavets and fan bBakhun for February 19. Bakhun is going to bring to the court witnesses who were with him at the match.
