Detained participants of punk concert sentenced to fines and arrest terms

January 12, three participants of the December 10 punk concert in “Pirates”, detained during a police raid, were tried by Judge of the Leninski District Court of Minsk A. Kamushkin.

No one invited to the court hall the people who intended to attend the trial. Only some of the most active ones managed to get there. However, the judge was already sitting on his chair at that time. He asked them who allowed them to get in, but didn't expel them from the court hall.

All three cases were considered within 20 minutes, and the judge even didn't go out of the court hall to take decisions. Despite the fact that all three defendants pleaded guilty (for strategic reasons) and were ready pay fines withing short terms, a female detainee was sentenced to a fine, whereas two others were sentenced to ten days of arrest.

It is worth noting that the detainees were judged under Article 17.1, “disorderly conduct”. Two other violation reports, drawn up under Article 17.11, “Production, distribution and/or storage of extremist materials” were sent back to the Leninski District Police Department for revising. The trials on them will take place later.

The trial was accompanied with violations of process norms. In one of the cases involving a lawyer, the judge didn't even offer the defendant's counsel to ask questions or make motions. The latter drew his attention to this fact and asked the court to not this in the minutes of the hearing. We can also note the dis-proportionality of the penalty, taking into account the fact that all defendants pleaded guilty and were ready to pay fines. The detainees intend to challenge the verdicts at higher court instances.