[1][2][3][4] According to the Militsiya, on the evening of August 11, 2020, Hienadz Shutau and another man attacked police officers in Brest near the Moskovsky district administration, beat them with a metal pipe, and tried to take away their weapons.
[2] On September 21, a video from a camera at the entrance of house 334 on Moskovskaya Street in Brest, under the windows of which on August 11 one of the "tihars" in civilian clothes shot Hienadz Shutau in the back of the head, was published by MediaZona.
This recording confirms that the official version of the Investigative Committee that the biker and his friend, with metal pipes in their hands, attacked the police and tried to take away their weapons, is fake.
[15] In the Kardziukou's court session on February 16, 2021, it turned out that on August 11, 2020, on Moskovskaya Street in Brest, a serviceman of the 5th Spetsnaz Brigade, Captain Roman Gavrilov, who was in civilian clothes and carried a Makarov pistol, shot at the back of Shutau's head.
[21][22] Brest human rights activist Raman Kislyak echoed them, calling the court "a screen of punitive tasks" because it did not meet the criteria of impartiality and independence, and the case itself was conducted for the sake of protecting the servicemen from a fair trial.
[23] According to Raman Kislyak, the Supreme Court failed to meet the criterion of independence when examining the appeal too, as the entire hearing was intended to exempt the military officers from punishment for murder and use of weapons.
[2][28] On September 17, 2020, the European Parliament, in a resolution approved by an absolute majority of MPs, called for an "independent and effective investigation" of the death of Hienadz Shutau related to the protests.
[29] On November 19, 2020, residents of Brest recorded a video message in connection with the escalation of violence in Belarus, among other things, draw the attention of the authorities to the need to investigate the murder of Hienadz Shutau so that the perpetrators would be punished in accordance with the law.
[30] On November 26, 2020, the European Parliament, in a resolution approved by an absolute majority of MPs, called for a "prompt, thorough, impartial, and independent investigation" into the killings during protests in Belarus, including Hienadz Shutau, thus supported the initiative of Brest residents.
[31] On February 25, 2021, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya weighed in on the court decision taking the side of the media and activists that thought that charges were trumped up as part of a crackdown to keep President Alexander Lukashenko in power, "A peaceful protester Henadz Shutau was shot dead by siloviki (security forces) in plain clothes last Aug. His friend Aliaksandr Kardziukou witnessed it and ran away.
"[32] Aksana Kolb, editor-in-chief of Novy Chas, wrote, "Aliaksandr Kardziukou, a friend of Hienadz Shutau who witnessed the murder, got ten years.
"[35] The experts also referred to their previous statements, according to which there were no riots in Belarus after the presidential elections in August 2020, but predominantly peaceful protests, the participants of which were unjustifiably subjected to ill-treatment and torture, took place; there were no regimes of martial law or a state of emergency, there was not an armed conflict, either.
[35] According to Article 23 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the Status of Servicemen,” servicemen are obliged to "always be in uniform, clean and neatly dressed", while Gavrilov and Golitsyn were of athletic build with belt bags in civilian clothes and caps, stuck together, and just a single look at them at the intersection, according to the court, allowed Shutau and Kardziukou to understand that they were "not just citizens present but on duty to protect public order" to qualify a crime.
[35] But the fact that Gavrilov and Golitsyn themselves mimicked protesters by clapping their hands, running away when the Militsiya was approaching, and such, according to the Viasna experts, could not allow them to be identified as special subjects of the crime.
[35] Based on that conclusion, on May 7, 2021, by a joint statement of seven organizations, including the Viasna Human Rights Centre, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Aliaksandr Kardziukou was recognized as a political prisoner.