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Judge of Minsk City Court upholds fine against United Civic Party leader

A judge of the Minsk City Court on Friday upheld a district court's decision to impose a fine on Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party (UCP), for distributing flyers on December 19, 2012, the second anniversary of the violent dispersal of a post-election protest.

Mr. Lyabedzka and several other UCP activists handed out the flyers near Kamarowski Rynak, a marketplace in downtown Minsk, to inform the public about politically motivated persecution in Belarus and the behind-the-scenes privatization of large Belarusian companies.

On January 15, a judge of the Savetski District Court sentenced Mr. Lyabedzka in absentia to a fine of 300,000 rubels ($35), finding him guilty of staging an unsanctioned demonstration.

In an interview with BelaPAN, Mr. Lyabedzka condemned Friday's court ruling as illegal, noting that the distribution of printed material could not be viewed as a street demonstration.

"The authorities obviously don't want us to tell people about shady privatization deals," he said. "Next week, I'll take printed material about privatization, high-profile disappearances and other vexed subjects for our government and hand them out on Minsk streets."

Mr. Lyabedzka said that he would complain about his fine to the UN Human Right Committee. "The ruling by the district judge was so absurd that I have no doubt the Committee will uphold my complaint," he said.