Baranavichy: Pavel Seviarynets Fined and Imprisoned for 17 Days

In the evening of 10 September in Baranavichy the verdict to the member of the organizing committee for the establishment of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party Pavel Seviarynets was read. He was charged under three articles of the Administrative Code: petty hooliganism (using a whistle), insubordination to the legal police demands, organization of and participation in an unauthorized meeting at the entrance of the court where an activist of the Young Front Yaraslau Hryshchenia was judged. According to the new legislation he was sentenced to 17 days of jail (earlier the largest term was 15 days) and fined 620 000 Belarusian rubles (about 288 US dollars). 

At the trial Mr. Seviarynets stated that nowadays there could be no legal courts in Belarus, that’s why he did not trust to the court. For using a whistle, which was considered as ‘petty hooliganism’, Seviarynets was sentenced to 2 days of jail. He will serve the 17-day arrest term in the temporary isolator of Baranavichy.