English

Opposition activist freed after disorderly conduct case against him is sent back to police

 

Prominent young opposition activist Pavel Vinahradaw was freed Monday after a district judge sent a disorderly conduct case against him back to the police for “additional work.”

On March 2, the 23-year-old leader of the "Tell the Truth!" movement's youth wing called Zmena completed a 10-day jail sentence that he was given over a protest in front of the Minsk City Executive Committee, which saw soft toys playing the role of demonstrators. Nine toys bearing miniature signs calling for press freedom and the release of political prisoners were displayed on a flower urn.

As Mr. Vinahradaw told BelaPAN, with about an hour remaining before the expiration of his 10-day jail term, he was ordered out of his cell and met his “old friends” from the Maskowski district police department who were waiting for him outside the detention center on Akrestsina Street. The officers got him into a car and drove him to a police station where he was told that he had shouted obscenities near a nearby store and had a new charge sheet drawn up against him.

“The case has been sent back for additional work and I guess I’ll have to serve a new term, although this is not for certain,” Mr. Vinahradaw said. “Police officers will naturally testify as witnesses against me and they will certainly find a reason I should be sentenced to a jail term again.”

In May 2011, Mr. Vinahradaw was sentenced to four years in prison in connection with a post-election protest staged in the Belarusian capital city on December 19, 2010. He was pardoned by Alyaksandr Lukashenka in September 2011.

In May 2008, Mr. Vinahradaw was sentenced to a two-year "restricted freedom" term over a January 2008 demonstration against the government's crackdown on small business owners. He was amnestied a year later.