Tadevush Havin Receives Other 15 Days of Jail

On 12 August Zinaida Bartsevich, judge of Hrodna Kastrychnitski Borough Court, sentenced Tadevush Havin, one of the leaders of the Union of Poles in Belarus, to 15 days of jail.

In the morning of 11 August the guards put the person whose surname is Malisheuski to the prison cell where Tadevush Havin spent the 15 days’ arrest to which he has been sentenced for alleged organization of a picket. Malisheuski started to provoke an argument. Finally, when Havin called the prison guards, Malisheuski began fighting. As a result, the policeman Zubkou composed reports on both of them and, which is even more interesting, made Havin the main accused. As a result, on 12 August he was sentenced to 15 more days of jail – for hooliganism (Article #156 of the Code of Administrative Violations). This trial started on 11 August, but Havin applied for advocatory services and the judge had to postpone it. The new term will start on 17 August, after the end of the present one. It looks like the authorities decided to deprive him of the possibility to attend the “correct” assembly of the Union of Poles they intend to hold on 27 August.