Brest Regional Court turns down appeal in Yury Rubtsou case
Yury Rubtsou. Photo by the HRC “Viasna”.
On July 24, the Brest Regional Court rejected the appeal of political prisoner Yury Rubtsou against a decision of the Pružany District Court, leaving the two-year sentence unchanged. The activist, who was serving a sentence in a correctional facility of open type in the village Kuplin, Pružany district, was accused of evasion from serving the punishment of restraint of liberty (Art. 415 of the Criminal Code).
The position of Yury Rubtsou’s lawyer Liudmila Kazak was based on the fact that Rubtsou di not refuse to work, and demanded the national average salary. The public prosecutor was rather tough in describing the actions and behavior of Rubtsou and insisted that the court's decision was correct.
Yury Rubtsou was not brought to the trial. After the hearing, the lawyer went to visit him at the
Baranavičy pre-trial prison. According to the lawyer, the ruling will be appealed.
Thus, the sentence has come into force, but it is still unknown where Yury Rubtsou will serve his sentence.
On October 6, Yury Rubtsou was sentenced by the court of the Centraĺny district of Minsk under Art. 391 of the Criminal Code (insult of a judge) to 1 year and 6 months of imprisonment. On December 21, it was reported that the opposition activist had been sent to open-type correctional facility No. 7 in the village of Kuplin, Brest region.
