Minsk City Court upholds jail sentence for opposition activist Parfyankow

The Minsk City Court on July 24 turned down opposition activist Vasil Parfyankow’s appeal against a six-month jail sentence imposed on him for violating the terms of “preventive” police supervision. 

Mr. Parfyankow was not taken into custody after the ruling was pronounced, Maksim Vinyarski, a representative of an opposition group called European Belarus, told BelaPAN. 

"He has not been detained, he will stay at home waiting to be sent to a jail," Mr. Vinyarski said. 

The activist is to serve his new sentence in a detention center where conditions are softer than in prisons. 

On May 29, Syarhey Bandarenka, a judge of the Pershamayski District Court in Minsk, found pardoned post-election protester Parfyankow, 28, guilty of failure to comply with the restrictions imposed on him after his early release last year. 

In February 2011, Vasil Parfyankow was sentenced to a four-year prison term in connection with a post-election protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010. 

He was granted a presidential pardon on August 11, 2011 and released three days later. 

After his release, Mr. Parfyankow was repeatedly arrested and punished under the Civil Offenses Code for participating in unsanctioned demonstrations. 

Mr. Parfyankow was placed under police supervision after the police claimed that he "has not stepped on the path of reformation" and "has repeatedly disturbed public order." 

It was Judge Bandarenka who imposed the restrictions on the activist in January this year. Mr. Parfyankow was ordered to report to probation officers once a week and stay at home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless he is required to be at his workplace, and prohibited from leaving Minsk on personal business without police permission. 

Accusing Mr. Parfyankow of violating the terms of police supervision, authorities said that the young man had been absent from his home without a good excuse and had been found guilty of a civil offense twice within a year.