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Opposition activist Ivan Amelchanka sentenced to 15 days in jail

 

Opposition activist Ivan Amelchanka was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 days in jail, his third jail term within two months.

Maryna Zapasnik, a judge of the Leninski District Court in Minsk, found Mr. Amelchanka guilty of disorderly conduct.

The young man was arrested on June 26 shortly after he walked out of his apartment in Minsk, according to opposition news websites. He was said to have been charged with using obscene language in public.

Human rights defenders suggested that the authorities were seeking to jail some prominent opposition activists ahead of Independence Day festivities on July 3.

"It's a shame that our courts and judges are involved in these illegal actions. This is vivid evidence of what the legal system has turned into in the country," said human rights activist Valyantsin Stefanovich.

During a Chernobyl anniversary march in Minsk on April 26, Mr. Amelchanka sneaked up to a plainclothes policeman busy filming the crowd, got to the left of him and unfurled a sign that featured an offensive slang term for a policeman with an arrow beneath pointing right at the officer.

After the demonstration, the city's police launched a hunt for the man.

Mr. Amelchanka presented himself at the police station in his area on his own on May 15. The following day, he was sentenced to 15 days in jail on a charge of "disorderly conduct."

After serving out the sentence, Mr. Amelchanka was rearrested and jailed for another 10 days. //BelaPAN