Yury Rubtsou declares hunger strike against fresh arrest
Yury Rubtsou. Photo by Radio Liberty’s Belarus service.
On May 22,the Court of Homel’sChyhunachny district sentenced opposition activist Yury Rubtsou, who was released after 25 days arrest, to five days of administrative arrest. The activist is expected to be released on May 27. In protest against arbitrary actions by the police and the judiciaryYury Rubtsouhas declared a hunger strike.
According to the website gomelspring.org,the activist, 52, has been visited by a lawyer.
Yury Rubtsousays that on the last day of his stay in the detention center in Akrestsin Street in Minsk he was visited by an investigator and questioned him in the presence of a lawyer about alleged insultingJudge Kiryl Palulekh of the SavetskiDistrict Court of Minsk. On May 21,the activist was taken by minibus from the detention center a few hours before the expected release time. He was brought to the police officeof the central railway station, where he was urged to sign a paper to waive claims about a T-shirt seized by the police, which he refused to do. He was released at about 7.30 p.m.
Rubtsouarrived in Homel by train at about 4 o’clock in the morning.
However, as he was walking home the activist was stopped by two policemen, whoasked to show his passport and tried to search him for drugs.
As a result, Yury Rubtsouwas taken to the police department of Homel’sChyhunachny district, where the police officers filed reports about disobedience and swearing in a public place. The detainee asked for a lawyer.However, the request was denied, as well as an opportunity to call his wife.
After that, the activist was taken to a detention center, then to the court. In court,he faced false testimonies from the two police officers, who argued that “during the detention Rubtsou fell to the ground, fought, used foul language”. Yury Rubtsousaid that he refused to take part in the showthey called a trial.
The judge, whose name Yury Rubtsoucannot remember, believed the policemen and sentenced the activist to five days in jail.After that, Yury Rubtsousaid that he declared a hunger strike against police and judicial tyranny.
