Political prisoner Dzianis Dzemukh sentenced to 18 months in prison

The Zavodski District Court of Minsk has sentenced political prisoner Dzianis Dzemukh to 1 year and 6 months of imprisonment in a general-security penal colony, after Judge Aleh Kaliada found him guilty of committing a crime under Art. 342 of the Criminal Code (active participation in group actions that grossly violate public order). The trial lasted only a few hours.

The court, however, dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by Minsktrans, the government-owned public transport operator.

Dzianis Dzemukh was detained on October 4 after the March for the Liberation of Political Prisoners. He was sentenced to 13 days in prison but was not released after serving the sentence. Dzemukh faced criminal charges, instead, which prompted a statement by the country’s human rights community calling him a political prisoner.