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Minsk City Court upholds three-month jail sentence against young opposition activist Uladzimir Yaromenak

A judge of the Minsk City Court on Tuesday upheld a district judge`s decision to impose a three-month jail sentence on young opposition activist Uladzimir Yaromenak for allegedly failing to comply with requirements of "preventive police supervision.", BelaPAN said.

Speaking during the hearing, the 23-year-old activist of an opposition youth organization called Malady Front (Young Front) denied any wrongdoing and accused police officers of drawing up false charge sheets against him. He pointed out that despite obvious differences between the signatures allegedly put by his landlord in his case file, the judge of the Pershamayski District Court had refused to have experts examine them.

Nevertheless, the judge of the Minsk City Court rejected Mr. Yaromenak`s appeal. He will now stay at home and wait to be sent to a jail.

Former political prisoners Pavel Sevyarynets, Zmitser Dashkevich and his wife, Anastasiya (Nasta) Dashkevich, attended the hearing.

In May 2011, Uladzimir Yaromenak was sentenced to three years in prison in connection with a post-election protest staged in Minsk’s Independence Square on December 19, 2010.

He was granted a presidential pardon on August 11, 2011, and released three days later.

Since then, Mr. Yaromenak has repeatedly been arrested and jailed under the Civil Offenses Code.

A district judge in Minsk placed him under preventive police supervision in March 2012.

On July 16, 2013, a police officer notified Mr. Yaromenak that criminal proceedings had been instituted against him the previous month for failure to stay at home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The three-month jail term was imposed on Mr. Yaromenak on August 20.