Activist sentenced in absentia for picket in support of Dashkevich

• 13.09.2011, 15:00

Judge Chaplyhina (Horki, Belarus) has sentenced Zmitser Shurkhaj, a Brest-based activist, to 10 days’ arrest.

The sentence was passed back on August 25, but it became known on September 13. The judge decided to score the days of arrest spent by Shurkhaj in Horki remand prison as a part of the term, the European Radio for Belarus informs.

We remind that on August 2 more than a dozen of activists were detained near the penal colony in Horki. The picketers demanded to allow lawyer to visit his client, Zmitser Dashkevich. 10 detainees were sentenced to several days of arrest at once, two of them were fined. Ivan Shyla and Zmitser Shurkhaj were given a respite in the court for them to find a lawyer. But they did not arrive for the hearings of the case. Recently Shyla was sentences to 20 days of arrest. It is unknown when he is going to serve them, as the guy studies in Poland.

And Zmitser Shurkhaj is a student of the European Humanities University in Vilnius, Lithuania.