Orsha: Pushkin and Yanusheuski Receive 7 Days of Jail for ‘Petty Hooliganism’

The administrative trial over the artist Ales Pushkin and the public activist Aliaksey Yanusheuski is over. According to a human rights activist Vasil Leuchankou, the police took the detainees to the court through the duty entrance, without informing the public about the beginning of the trial. Human rights activists composed an appeal against the ‘closed’ nature of the trial and passed it to the chancellery of Orhsa court. They managed to get to the trial only after a break. 

The judge Tatsiana Rybakova found Pushkin and Yanusheuski guilty of ‘petty hooliganism’ (article 17.1 of the Administrative Code) and sentenced them to 7 days of jail. 

Bear in mind that the administrative case against Pushkin and Yanusheuski was quite unprepared and unprofessional. It is witnessed by the fact that the trial was postponed several times and the police had to correct their reports for changing the corpus delicti. Yesterday the trial did not take place because the court was unable to provide the detainees with an interpreter into Belarusian.

Bear in mind that on 9 September about 30 activists were detained after the celebration of an anniversary of the Orsha battle. At the police department someone threw a state flag out of a window. At first Pushkin and Yanusheuski were accused in it.