Europe's last dictatorship: A one-armed man arrested for clapping; a mute person held for shouting

In Belarus, one-armed man arrested for clapping Rights advocates express dismay over ferocity of police response to protests.


Yeah, it's come to this...

MOSCOW — The sound of one hand clapping may be one of those proverbial mysteries, but a man was arrested and seriously punished in Minsk this week for allegedly doing it.

It's a little whiff of absurdity amid a wave of unrelentingly grim news from Belarus, where "Europe's last dictator" Alexander Lukashenko is digging in against growing public protests over a collapsing economy that's gutted living standards and left hundreds of thousands out of work since January in the little post-Soviet country of 10 million.

In order to evade tough regulations on public rallies, protesters eschew placards and shouted slogans, and merely clap their hands to display their anger at Mr. Lukashenko's policies. Since the weekly flash mob protests began last month, more than 1,700 people have been arrested – 400 this week alone. Most of them were fined heavily or jailed for up to 15 days on police court testimony that they were expressing a political opinion by clapping their hands in public.

But Konstantin Kaplin, an unemployed man from the western town of Grodno, says he was convicted this week of applauding in public and fined the equivalent of $200, despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence: He is officially registered as a disabled person and has only one arm.

Mr. Kaplin insists that he was only standing nearby and attempting to photograph demonstrators with his cell phone when plainclothes police grabbed him.

"The judge read out the charges, the police affirmed that I was applauding, and the fine was levied," Kaplin says.

There was no examination of evidence at all, he adds.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

It wont be long until this happens in America.

On a side note, at least they figured out what the sound of one hand clapping is....Injustice!

Originally posted by redbarron626
It wont be long until this happens in America.

On a side note, at least they figured out what the sound of one hand clapping is....Injustice!

haha... On second thought, I shouldn't laugh at all... It's a citation waiting to happen!

OMG! I was reading the article and was laughing because I was sure you would link me to The Onion.

Then I saw the MSNBC link...


This is outrageous, I'm lost for words.

Originally posted by redbarron626
It wont be long until this happens in America.

Jut look at the cover charges known as 'resisting arrest' and 'assaulting an officer'

These things already happen.