English

Nyaklyayew, Rymashewski sentenced to suspended two-year prison terms

A district judge in Minsk on May 20 gave a suspended two-year prison sentence with two years’ probation to former presidential candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyayew and a suspended two-year prison sentence to another former presidential candidate, Vital Rymashewski.

Judge Zhanna Zhukowskaya of the Frunzenski District Court found Messrs. Nyaklyayew and Rymashewski guilty of the "organization and preparation of actions that are in gross violation of public order or active participation in them" in connection with a post-election protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010.

Mr. Nyaklyayew’s campaign aides Alyaksandr Fyaduta and Syarhey Vaznyak received also received suspended two-year prison sentences.

Mr. Nyaklyayew’s campaign manager, Andrey Dzmitryyew, was sentenced to a suspended two-year prison term as well.

Anastasiya (Nasta) Palazhanka, deputy chairperson of an opposition youth organization called Malady Front who was Mr. Rymashewski's campaign aide during the presidential race, was given a suspended one-year prison sentence.

Messrs. Nyaklyayew and Rymashewski announced that they would appeal their sentences.

Mr. Nyaklyayew, a prominent Belarusian poet who chaired the Union of Belarusian Writers between 1998 and 2001, was beaten unconscious by men in black uniform half an hour before the closure of the polls in the December 14-19 presidential election in an attack widely believed to have been masterminded by Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s secret services. Journalists who witnessed the incident unequivocally insist that the traffic police officers blocked the way of the Nyaklyayew-led group to create a pretext for the attack.

Mr. Nyaklyayew was rushed to the Minsk City Emergency Hospital but was forcibly taken by plainclothesmen to the KGB detention center a few hours later.

On January 29, Mr. Nyaklyayew was placed under house arrest.

Mr. Rymashewski, the presidential nominee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party who received a head injury during clashes between protesters and riot police in Independence Square on the night of December 19, was arrested shortly after midnight as he was leaving the Minsk City Emergency Hospital, where his injury had been treated and bandaged.

He was placed in the KGB detention center and released on the night between December 31 and January 1 on his own recognizance after he had written an explanatory letter to Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The content of the letter is still unknown.