Minsk: Several Activists of Milinkevich's Headquarters Sentenced to 15 Days of Jail

On 9 March Minsk Partyzanski Borough Court considered the administrative cases against a number of activists of Aliaksandr Milinkevich's headquarters who were detained during the meeting of Aliaksandr Milinkevich with the electorate that took place on 8 March near the Tractor Plant. As a result Aliaksandr Zelka was sentenced to 15 days of jail.

Minsk Maskouski Borough Court also gave 15-day sentenced to the activists Piatro Babareka, Uladzimir Hrydzin, Aliaksandr Paulouski and Piatro Tomar. This court also sentenced to 15 days of jail Milinkevich's proxy Vintsuk Viachorka, chair of the BPF Party. He was accused of violation of article 167.1 of the Code of Administrative Violations (organization of unauthorized assembly). The trial lasted for 2 hours. In his last plea Mr Viachorka said: "On 8 March I acted in conformity with the Constitution and article 45 of the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus. I executed the duties of a proxy of a candidate to the presidential position of the Republic of Belarus by presenting the candidate and agitating for him at a legal meeting with the electorate. There happened no violations, nobody violated the public order. The law was violated after the end of the meeting by unknown persons in plain clothes who burst into the car, refused to introduce themselves and took me to the investigative isolator. I am sure that sooner or later they will have to bear responsibility for the committed violations of the Constitution and the electoral legislation".

We should remind that on 8 March, after the end of the meeting with the electorate that took place near the cinema Biarestsie, the police detained the car with sound devices and Vintsuk Viachorka and beat him.