In the evening of 30 July 2006, the Belarusian national TV has openly shown homosexual act between the 2nd Secretary of the Latvian Embassy to Belarus Reimo Smits and another man naming it "a dirty homosexual orgy". The diplomat was named "pervert" and "porno dealer".
A report covering a probe recently launched into a Latvian embassy official accused of disseminating porn materials contained a short film showing two men having sex with each other. His identity was disclosed during the TV program, which said that the images had been recorded "in the flat of the diplomat Reimo Smits".
A criminal case was filed against the diplomat on charges of distributing pornographic materials, Belarusian Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov told journalists on 28 July in Minsk. "Porn materials were confiscated from him," the official said.
The police obtained information that the diplomat "was involved in the activity for a long time. However, it was difficult to establish his identity before," Naumov said, adding that the man has not been placed under arrest.
On 25 July, representatives of the Belarusian secret services stormed the apartment of the Latvian diplomat in Minsk and carried out a search there. They seized some of his possessions including video materials. According to the Latvian Foreign Ministry, those videocassettes had footage of six-year-old Belarusian news spots. It is not a secret material, and the diplomat cannot be charged even with spying.
“To say that the cassettes seized by policemen whose visit lasted for 10-15 minutes, had porn materials is senseless, as it cannot be proved. Even if these cassettes had porn materials, it is too insignificant pretext for breaching international commitments of Belarus and causing a great international scandal,” said Svyatoslav Sementsov, Belarusian LGBT activist.
Belarusian secret services established the latent microphones and video cameras in an apartment of the diplomat, in infringement of the international norms and local legislation. Similar illegal methods have been used in the cases with the Czech attaché in January 2005, and the 2nd secretary of German embassy in October 2004.
During a TV program the references to political opposition have been constantly made. For example they showed footage of the protests on the October Square in Minsk after the presidential elections. It is obvious, that authorities again used extremely homophobic moods in a society to downturn of a rating of opposition.
Belarusian TV has being often used by the government to denounce "plots" organized by foreign diplomats to change the regime. The government-controlled media also tries to smear the opposition by associating it with homosexuality. Their homophobic reports demonstrate that negative attitudes towards homosexuals exist at the highest levels of government.
“Although homosexuality is not a criminal offense in Belarus, homophobia is widespread and instances of harassment occurred in all spheres of society,” said Viachaslau Bortnik, Chair of Amnesty International Belarus.
Svyatoslav Sementsov
