A mother of five was fined for volunteering at the protests.
She brought water and medicine and provided medical assistance to those who needed it.
Tatyana Maksimova, a mother of five, was fined for participating in a rally in Gomel. The woman was indeed present at the protest, however as a volunteer: she brought water and medicine and provided medical assistance to those who needed it.
Ever since August 12, Tatyana was on duty near the detention centre. Later she started to work at the peaceful protests as well. On September 20, after a seemingly long break, security forces appeared on the streets again and began to disperse people. That’s when she went out to volunteer.
- At 15.30 a woman felt bad at the circus area. After all, everyone reacts differently to the actions of the riot police. We took her aside and gave her a sedative. Then they started to push people back towards the department store, us too. They said: “Go on, join yours.” We replied that we were volunteers and not protest participants, but just in case, we still stepped aside and continued to observe the situation. Then, there was another woman who needed help. Later, someone pushed another protester, who had just taken off her cast — and now she seemed to have had a fracture again. We sat her down on the steps of a building nearby and provided assistance. The riot policemen were near us all the time and saw everything. And they still detained us.
Tatyana says that it happened after the rally when the protesters left. At that time, she and other volunteers were waiting at the bus stop.
- A tinted bus drove up, and people in masks told us to go with them. They claimed that we had scratched a car, and now we had to investigate this incident at the police department. By the way, while we were being registered at that police department, we heard the police’s discontent: “Why did you bring them here?”
And after a while, a policeman came out and said that he had two news for us: good and not so good. The good news is that we didn’t scratch that car. The bad news is that we took part in the protest, and so they would write up the protocols for us.
After the registration of the protocol, Tatyana was released home, but other volunteers were taken to the temporary detention facility.
On October 6, the woman was found guilty of participating in an unauthorized mass event. She was ordered a fine of 540 BYR (c.180 EUR). This is a big sum of money for a large family, and Tatyana intends to appeal the court decision.
Despite this, Tatyana says she plans to continue going to the streets if someone needs her help.
