Still behind bars
It seems no one cares about that guy, so I feel obliged to write about his case again, to give him just a little bit more exposure, though I don’t have such a big audience (probably, about 100-200 readers). The latest news is that Zmicier Pimenau is still in jail and he began another hunger strike to protest against (1) maltreatment by Belgian police; (2) the fact that he is not being charged with anything and kept behind bars without any explanation.
He was arrested on November 8, when there was a Belarusan protest on Schumann square in Brussels. He was arguing with the police, trying to get a permission to stay over night, but police forbid that and detained him, supposedly because he didn’t have proper ID’s and they suspected he was illegal. In the next several days it became clear that mister Pimenau has all proper documentation and a legal refugee status, however he was not released.
His lawyer, Vincent Vereke, said today that there’ll be a hearing on December 19, and that during the hearing his client will either be charged with some crime or released. And that he declines to comment any further.
Again, I don’t know Pimenau personally, and maybe he has done something illegal. But, nevertheless, the whole thing looks a bit fishy to me. 
P.S. Meanwhile in Minsk, a Polish journalist Agnieszka Romaszewska was disallowed entry into Belarus and deported back to Poland, today. She had to spend the whole night in Minsk-2 international airport (a dark spooky place, I must tell you), in a guarded room. Agnieszka Romaszewska was supposed to come to Minsk in order to lay groundwork for opening a Minsk bureau of the first Polish TV channel TVP-1. Belarus authorities clearly don’t want that to happen.
December 15th, 2005 at 12:26 am
Well I submitted two articles to Euronews, hoping they would do something with it but it didn’t even pass moderation. Grrr… Perhaps I should use more offensive language rather than structured, well-mannered language as such articles DO pass moderation.
One of such articles that did pass:
“Euronews steadily ignores a 10 million country in Europe. You act like Belarus does not exist at all. Why? Must smth extreme or extraordinary happen for you to mention it?”
Euronews responded with ” ” Yes… nothing.
Giving it one more try.
December 16th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
No wonder why…
December 17th, 2005 at 1:56 am
Euronews isnt very hopefull… here’s a comment by another user. Unanswered I might add:
” Dear Mrs/Mr
I would like to congratulate you for the quality of your programmes. It feels like home when you travel abroad and see the Euronews programmes all over Europe. I know that you have limited time to present the most important events in Europe or in other parts of the world, but don’t you think you should pay more attention to the European events?
I watch Euronews every day and for the past three weeks I have seen no information about teachers’ strike in Romania. There are people on hunger strike since 9 days ago and nobody seems to bother.
Is this the democratic attitude that should be adopted? Is it a preferential treatment for countries that already are in the European Union?
I did not expect a 5 minutes presentation of the situation, but at least 30 seconds to inform Europe how a governemnet that is suppose to be democratic treats his elites?
A Romanian viewer A Romanian viewer”
December 18th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
[…] P.S. Zmicier Pimenau was set free. Belgian police released him on Friday and said that it was mistake and they are sorry. […]
September 7th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
Are you there?
Cool.