BREST POLICE ARRESTS HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIS AGAIN

Brest police arrested Uladzimir Vialichkin, member of Viasna, again. He has just served his term of 5 days on fabricated charges of using obscene language in a public place. Today he was supposed to be released. However, the police officers drove him from jail straight to the police station where they again charged him with disorderly conduct (Art 156). Allegedly, Vialichkin swore at the policeman who escorted him. This time he was sentenced to 7 days in jail.

NASA NIVA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SENTENCED TO 10 DAYS OF JAIL

Savetski court of Minsk sentenced Andrei Dynko, editor-in-chief of Nasa Niva newspaper to 10 days of jail for disorderly conduct. Judge Alena Kraichyk decided the testimony of the policemen who detained him was reliable. The police officers claimed that in the morning of March 21 the editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper was walking on Kastrychnitskaya Square and swore using obscene language. The policemen said Dynko did not react on their numerous remarks.
The judge believed the testimony of the police officers (Shyshko and Pachtsenny) despite the fact that they contradicted each other. They even named different places where they detained Dynko: one of them claimed Dynko had been detained on a bus stop, the other one said the detention took place near the Palace of Trade Unions. At the same time, the judge completely ignored the testimony of Veranika Dziadok and Ales Kudrytski – Dynko’s colleagues. They both testified that the journalist was pushed into the bus at the moment when he was getting off from it. He simply had no time to do what he is accused of.
The judge dismissed the motions of Dynko’s attorney to listen to the testimony of two more witnesses – reporters Yury Karmanau and Tatsiana Kalinouskaya .