Rabkova pleaded not guilty to all charges

September 8, BPN. Belarusian human rights defender Marfa Rabkova pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to her last statement published by the Viasna Human Rights House on September 8.

Her long list of charges included creating an extremist organization, organizing riots and inciting hatred. The activist described it as absurd, fabricated and invented by the interior ministry’s organized crime unit GUBOPiK, which she compared to Gestapo.

“You label me as an extremist and claim that I am a ‘desctructive element,’ ‘embittered’ and ‘without roots.’ But I am part of society, just like all of you. The only difference is that I call things by their proper names and can’t help but react. Violence is violence, repression is repression and war is war,” she told the court.

The Minsk City Court on September 6 imposed lengthy prison sentences on two human rights defenders and eight anarchist activists. Viasna’s coordinator Marfa Rabkova was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and its volunteer Andrej Čapiuk to six.

Rights groups called their persecution politically motivated.