Minsk: Pavel Baranouski and Aliaksei Shydlouski Put Behind Bars again

09.08.2007. Tags: administrative trials, political persecution.
Source: BelaPAN.

The youth activist Aliaksei Shydlouski has been sentenced to five more days of jail. He was taken to Partyzanski borough court of Minsk right from the detention center where he was serving his 15-day arrest.

The court found Shydlouski guilty of ‘petty hooliganism (article 17.1 of the Administrative Code). The defendant allegedly ‘swore dirtily on the police on 24 July). It is quite interesting that on 25 July the activist was sentenced to 15 days of jail for analogical crime which he had allegedly committed on 25 July.

The youth activist Pavel Baranouski was sentenced to three days of jail under the same charges. The night which he spent in the detention center was included in the term of the arrest.

Baranouski and Shydlouski were detained on 24 July in the center of Minsk while sticking oppositional leaflets and taken to the detention center in Akrestsin Street. The following morning they were taken to Partyzanski court, but the trial was postponed to 8 August as the accusation witnesses were absent. As a result on 25 July, two days before an oppositional action dedicated to celebration of the 17^th anniversary of the Declaration of State Sovereignty, the defendants were released right from court. However, several hours later Shydlouski was detained again, brought to the court and sentenced to 15 days of arrest.