Mikola Statkevich: Sentences on trial of 14 are new form of “khimia”

• 28.05.2008, 10:30

Mikola Statkevich, head of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaya Hramada), member of the organising committee of the civil campaign “European Belarus,” said the sentences to participants of the trial of 14 were a new form of “khimia” (open type penalty institution).

The former political prisoner is sure that the Belarusian justice was formal, but didn’t contain any sense:

“Some of the accused were fined at the last process, and some were sentenced to a new form of “khimia,” when they are not sent to penal facilities. We haven’t included them into the list of political prisoners. The authorities have taken it into account: if we don’t react to such sentences, where a person is restricted to his apartment, this form of punishment will spread,” the politician said in an interview to Radio Svaboda.

The court of the Tsentralny district of Minsk sentenced Mikhas Subach and Paval Vinahradau, participants of the protest action of entrepreneurs, to two years of restraint of liberty without sending them to penitentiary institutions. One more figure in the trial of 14 minor Maksim Dashuk got 1 ½ years of restraint of liberty.

14 opposition activists are involved in the case on participation in protest actions of entrepreneurs. 10 of them have been already convicted. Youth activist Andrei Kim is sentenced to one and a half year in penal colony by the Central district court of Minsk. Other participants of the trial of 14 – Alyaksei Bondar, Artsyom Dubski, Mikhal Kryvau, Mikhal Pashkevich, Ales Straltsou, Ales Charnyshou, Tatsyana Tishkevich are sentenced to correctional labour without sending them to penitentiary institutions. They must charge the state 20 per cent of their wages. Anton Koipish and Uladzimir Syarheeu are fined of 100 basic units.