Homel: administrative case for raising white-red-white flag

The Tsentralny District Court of Homel considered the administrative case of the representative of Young Belarus Ivan Zaitsau who was detained by police during the official celebration of the Day of Minsk for raising a white-red-white flag there. .

Judge Marina Domnenka freed the activist from custody until Monday 20 September due to the need to question the police witnesses.

The defendant is charged with disorderly conduct and resistance to the police. Mr. Zaitsau pleaded innocent at the trial and said he had been detained for raising the flag during a festive concert.

When he raised a flag, three unknown people in civilian clothes rushed to him, knocked him down hitting him in stomach with their knees. He really resisted, but could not know that the criminals - the police.

"I realized that they were policemen only when I was taken to the locker rooms of the Ice Palace and put down on the floor with my hands in handcuffs. They drew up a violation report and took me to the delinquents’ isolation center, where I spent the weekend,’ said Ivan. I didn’t use foul language. I really resisted to them, but it’s a normal reaction of any person to whom attacked by unknown people in civilian clothes.

Though the judge released the activist from custody, the lawyer Leanid Sudalenka believes that she has no choice but punish the activist with administrative detention, as he had already spent about two days in jail.

’Article 17.1, ‘disorderly conduct’, envisages up to 15 days of arrest. The fact that Zaitsau was kept in the detention center for two days before the trial can prevent the judge from fining him. Most probably, the court will confine the term of the arrest to the two days the activist had already spent in detention,’ commented the human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka who attended the trial.