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Movement for Freedom set to stage demonstrations in support of its imprisoned member Mikita Likhavid

 

The Movement for Freedom plans to stage demonstrations in support of its member Mikita Likhavid who is widely believed to be a political prisoner, said BelaPAN.

According to the Movement’s press office, the demonstrations are to take place in 25 Belarusian cities, including Navapolatsk, where the 21-year-old Likhavid is serving a prison term.

The leader of the Movement for Freedom, Alyaksandr Milinkevich, has filed an application with the Minsk City Executive Committee for permission to stage a demonstration in the city’s central Kastrychnitskaya Street. Demonstrations are also to be held in five other places in Minsk.

The objective of the demonstration is not only to urge authorities to treat the prisoner humanely but also to demand his release, the press office said.

Mr. Likhavid is reportedly being held in a disciplinary cell for the fifth time since being transferred to the correctional facility in Navapolatsk on May 7. He has to spend 20 days in a disciplinary cell for four alleged violations of prison rules.

He has already spent 35 days in a disciplinary cell since being transferred to the Navapolatsk prison.

On March 29, Mr. Likhavid, a law student at private Minsk Management Institute, was sentenced to three years and six months in a medium-security correctional institution. He was found guilty of participation in "mass disorder" in connection with a post-election protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010.