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Prosecutor demands six year in prison for Vasil Parfyankow

The prosecutor in the trial of Vasil Parfyankow charged in connection with the December 19 post-election protest in Minsk has demanded a six-year prison sentence for the young opposition activist who was a member of the campaign team of presidential candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyayew.

The trial began at Minsk’s Frunzenski District Court on Thursday.

Prosecutor Anton Zaharowski said that the defendant’s guilt had been proved beyond reasonable doubt, suggesting that Mr. Parfyankow should be sentenced to six years in a high-security institution.

Mr. Parfyankow is accused of taking part in a “mass riot” under Part Two of the Criminal Code’s Article 293 that carries a prison sentence of between three and eight years for the crime.

He is the first person to stand trial over the street protest. A total of 42 people, including five former presidential candidates and other prominent opposition figures, are charged in the so-called riot case.

Mr. Parfyankow admitted his partial guilt. He told Judge Volha Kamar that he participated in the protest in Minsk’s Independence Square but did not smash windows of the House of Government.

The young man was arrested and put into custody on January 4.

In its story run following the December 19 protest to defame the Belarusian opposition, the government’s mouthpiece newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussiya alleged that Mr. Parfyankow, who was a member of Belarusian opposition youth groups called Zubr and Malady Front between 2001 and 2005, was involved in the campaign of Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine`s 2004-2005 presidential race and participated in an attack on the headquarters of the team of Mr. Yushchenko’s main rival, Viktor Yanukovych. //BelaPAN