A/HRC/44/55 events. Another environmental activist was detained with his son and charged with trafficking in ammunition. The prosecution was later terminated owing to a lack of evidence.33 The Special Rapporteur is concerned that arbitrary arrests are used as a tool to intimidate civil society and to prevent people from exercising their legitimate right to freedom of peaceful assembly. 40. The protests around the parliamentary elections in November 2019 and against “deeper integration” with the Russian Federation in December 2019 provoked another wave of arrests and detentions. Unauthorized meetings in support of the territorial integrity of Belarus had a peaceful character and were not forcibly stopped by the police during the protests. The organizers and participants were neither detained during the protests nor immediately afterwards. However, a total of 109 court rulings were handed down under article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences for illegal protesting, resulting in 87 persons being fined and 5 being sentenced to administrative detention. 34 Suppressive tactics are not only applied to protesters, but also to journalists, bloggers and those expressing critical opinions. The repeated arrests of the activist and blogger Dzmitry Kazlou, who faced a total of eight charges under article 23.34 and was sentenced to a total of 120 days in detention, 35 testify to the intimidation tactics applied by the Belarusian authorities. The detention of journalists and activists for an indefinite period of time on renewed charges implies that persecuted persons are made to live under constant distress and fear of retaliation.36 41. The Special Rapporteur deplores the fact that several journalists and bloggers continued to be detained systematically for participating in activities that were critical of the Government. Andrei Pavuk was arrested on 20 March 2019 for allegedly sending a fake bomb threat to the local government via email. 37 He was later cleared of the charges. Siarhiej Piatruchin, a blogger, was heavily fined and found guilty of defamation and insult under the articles 188.2 and 189.2, respectively, of the Criminal Code of Belarus. 38 These charges were filed against Mr. Piatruchin for uploading videos to the Internet of the alleged involvement of police officers in the beating of Pavel Kaminski in 2016. Another blogger, Aliaksandr Kabanau, was charged under article 211.1 of the Criminal Code for embezzlement, involving the alleged misappropriation of 440 Belarusian roubles (approximately $200) in 2017, while serving as a chairperson of a housing cooperative. The charges against Mr. Kabanau were dropped in December 2019 for a lack of corpus delicti. 39 These charges are considered by human rights activists to be acts of intimidation. 42. The Special Rapporteur strongly condemns the alleged cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, and inhuman treatment, of Roma people by law enforcement officers in Mogilev on 16 May 2019, following claims that a police officer had been murdered. 40 These include allegations of the mistreatment of women, children and the elderly. According to available information, approximately 100 Roma were apprehended, of whom 50 were subsequently detained. The detentions were conducted with the use of excessive force, alongside threats and intimidation.41 The detained remained in custody for three days and were later released with no charges.42 It was reported that the Roma community of Belarus received informal apologies from the Head of the Administration of the President, Natalia Kachanava, who promised that all the complaints and appeals against police actions would be reviewed. 43 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 8 See https://charter97.org/en/news/2019/10/9/351237/. See http://spring96.org/en/news/95897. Ibid. See http://spring96.org/en/news/95785. See https://baj.by/ru/content/po-faktu-lzheminirovaniya-v-oktyabrskom-zavedeno-ugolovnoe-delobloger-andrey-pauk-zaderzhan (in Russian). See https://naviny.by/new/20190820/1566290643-sudebnye-ispolniteli-arestovali-imushchestvoblogera-sergeya-petruhina (in Russian). See http://spring96.org/en/news/93408. Communication AL BLR 7/2019, 21 October 2019, available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=24895. See https://naviny.by/new/20190531/1559300498-massovye-zaderzhaniya-cygan-v-mogileve-delomzanyalas-genprokuratura (in Russian). See http://spring96.org/ru/news/93339 (in Russian). See https://naviny.by/new/20190523/1558638773-kochanova-po-vsem-zhalobam-mogilevskih-cyganbudet-provedeno-razbiratelstvo (in Russian).