Translated material
The Minsk court upheld the sentence to Neklyaev
The collegium of the Minsk City Court rejected the cassation appeal of the former presidential candidate Vladimir Neklyaev, leaving him the sentence unchanged, as in the case of all the other ex-candidates, Gazeta.ru reports. Also unchanged, the court left the verdict to the head of the election headquarters Neklyaev Andrei Dmitriev.
In the spring, one of the district courts of Minsk found them guilty under the article "Organization of group actions that violate public order or active participation in them." This is a milder article than applied to three other ex-candidates, so Neklyaev was not sent to bars. The ex-candidate and the head of his headquarters were sentenced to two years in prison with a delay in punishment.
On July 19, the Minsk City Court left the sentences to the ex-candidates of the president of Belarus Nikolai Statkevich and Dmitry Uss, as well as the wife of the ex-candidate for President Andrei Sannikov, journalist Irina Khalip. The sentences to Alexander Klaskovsky, Artem Gribkov, Alexander Kvyatkevich, Dmitry Bulanov, Andrei Poznyak, the head of the election headquarters of the ex-candidate Vitaly Rymashevsky, the co-chair of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party and the head of the election headquarters of the ex-Candidate in Nikolai Presidential Presidential President were also upheld. Statkevich Sergey Marrasev.
The lawyer of Statkevich Tatyana Stankevich said that what was happening on Square on December 19 can be qualified not as mass riots, but as hooligan actions of disparate groups. The lawyer also does not consider proved the involvement of his client in the organization of riots. Lawyer Khalip Anna Bakhtina said that "the time will come when we will return to this matter again and it will be considered as it should be when all evidence will be taken into account." The speech of the lawyer was met by applause, which the judge asked to stop. The prosecutor regarded the lawyer’s speech as a threat.
Statkevich and the USS were sentenced to six and five and a half years in prison with a sentence in a colony of enhanced regime. The Halip was sentenced to two years in prison with a delay in the execution of the sentence for two years, that is, it remained free. Earlier, the court upheld the verdict of the ex-candidate for the President Andrei Sannikov. He was sentenced to five years.
On July 1, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded from the authorities of Belarus to free political prisoners. “We demand that Belarus release political prisoners and follow the path of democratic changes,” Clinton said at a press conference after a meeting in Vilnius with Lithuania President Dalya Gribauskaite.
On January 31, the leaders of the European diplomatic departments approved at a meeting in Brussels sanctions against President Lukashenko and another 157 Belarusian officials, prohibiting them with entry into the EU. In addition, the EU Foreign Minister decided to freeze their personal financial avoirs in the European Union, if there are such.
In the criminal case of riots, several dozen people took place, including several ex -anderates of presidential candidates. Most of the detainees during the riots on December 19, 2010 were punished administratively. Several dozen people were prosecuted, including Russian citizens Ivan Gaponov and Artem Breus. They were fined.
At the end of May, another ex-candidate for the president of Belarus Vitaly Rymashevsky was sentenced to two years in prison. Another ex-candidate Ales Mikhalevich managed to secretly leave Belarus and received political asylum in the Czech Republic.
On December 19, 2010, the Belarusian opposition organized a protest in Minsk after the end of the voting in the presidential election, the winner of which was the current President Alexander Lukashenko. The authorities detained hundreds of participants in the action, including opposition candidates for president.
