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Defense team ask judge to drop charges against Sannikaw, four post-election protesters

No mass disorder took place in Minsk on December 19, 2010, said the defense team in the trial of former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikaw and four post-election protesters at Friday’s hearing in the city’s Partyzanski District Court.

The 57-year-old Sannikaw, a former deputy foreign minister, stands accused of organizing mass disorder in connection with a demonstration staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010 in protest against alleged vote fraud. The offense involves personal violence, acts of wanton destruction, damage to property and armed resistance to authority figures.

The four others are accused of participation in mass disorder, a softer charge.

No property was destroyed during the demonstration in Independence Square, the defense team said at the Friday court session.

During an attempt to storm the House of Government in the square, which was made only by a handful of people, the House’s entrance doors were only damaged, not destroyed, they said.

Neither acts of wanton destruction nor arsons nor armed resistance to police nor damage to retail outlets occurred during the demonstration that was of an exclusively peaceful nature, the team noted.

The team asked the judge to drop the charges against the accused.

Earlier on Friday, the public prosecutor demanded that the former presidential candidate be sentenced to seven years in a medium-security correctional institution. Prosecutor Anton Zaharowski also called for sentencing Aleh Hnedchyk to four years in a medium-security prison and three other post-election protesters, Uladzimir Yaromenak, Ilya Vasilevich and Fyodar Mirzayanaw to three years in a medium-security institution. //BelaPAN