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Young opposition activist sentenced to 15 days in jail for allegedly using obscene language

 

A judge of Minsk’s Maskowski District Court on August 8 sentenced Pavel Kuryanovich, a member of an opposition association called European Belarus, to 15 days in jail, finding him guilty of “petty hooliganism” (disorderly conduct) under Article 17.1 of the Administrative Offenses Code. Policemen alleged that Mr. Kuryanovich had used obscene language.

Mr. Kuryanovich and six other young opposition activists were arrested in Thursday’s police raid on an apartment in Minsk that houses the office of Malady Front, a youth opposition group.

Police burst into the apartment on Karalya Street after emergency management workers cut a hole in the steel door and bashed the wooden door behind it with a heavy hammer. Those inside refused to open the door, as the police failed to produce a search warrant. The officers explained that they had received an anonymous telephone tip that there was a dead body in the apartment.

Four of the detained were released later on the same day without charges.

Malady Front leaders Artur Finkevich and Zmitser Dashkevich were placed in the detention center on Akrestsina Street to serve seven-day sentences that they had received over their participation in an official May Day rally in Minsk on May 1. Both of them reportedly said that they would refuse food throughout their jail terms. //BelaPAN