Two Years of Jail for Insult of Lukashenka
On October 23 several dozen people came to Leninski court room. The people who had received help from Katsiaryna Sadouskaya at difficult moments of their life came to support her during the trial. RFE/RL reports, civic societyactivists and representatives of the US Embassy also attended the court hearing. However, their presence had little impact on the objectivity of the verdict.
The ground for the criminal case was a letter found during the search in Sadouskaya’s apartment. In the letter which she failed to send anywhere Sadouskaya accused the state leader of committing serious crimes and called him a “monster”. According to the linguistic expert analysis, this word is a comparison with an animal and thus insults personal dignity. Prosecutor Natalla Talash asked to sentence the 60-year-old woman to 3 years of jail for insult of Alexander Lukashenka. Also Natalla Talash accused the pensioner of having threatened Kirau district court judge Nadzieya Chmara.
Minsk Leninski court judge Tatsiana Zhulkouskaya sentenced Katsiryna Sadouskaya to 2 years of minimum security jail. According to the verdict she also has to pay 4 million BYR (around 2 thousand US dollars) of compensation for moral damage to judges Chmara and Ulitsina, as well as all court expenses.
Katsiaryna Sadouskaya’s family, disabled husband and children, did not expect such a severe punishment for their mother. In April Mrs. Sadouskaya underwent an oncologic surgery. She has an 84-year-old mother to take care for.
Katsiaryna Sadouskaya was detained on July 25. At first she was kept at the mental hospital and later transferred to a pre-trial detention center. The court did not take into account the time she spent in the hospital. The term of her sentence will be counted from the moment she was transferred to the detention center.
