Russian Citizen Arrested In Belarus For Wearing Unusual Cap

• 17.09.2023, 22:47

Details.

Haradok District Court Judge Hanna Hurynova brought a guilty verdict against citizen of the Russian Federation Viktor Mishchenko sentencing him to two days of arrest for holding a “picketing” in the Belarusian city of Haradok without permission of the local District Executive Committee, writes the Vitsebskaia Viasna.

According to the administrative violation records, Viktor walked around the city wearing a cap with the image of the Pahonia (“The Chase”) Coat of Arms and a White-Red-White stripe.

The Russian citizen explained to the court that he really did this, but supposedly did not know that the public demonstration of the symbols depicted on his headdress in combination with the white-white ribbon was an expression of his political views, that is, supposedly this was a picket that carried out illegally.

Judge Hurynova did not agree with Mishchenko’s argumentation and punished the Russian citizen with arrest under Part 1 of Art. 24.23 Code of Administrative Offenses, although, for a very short period of time - “only” for two days. She decided to keep the physical evidence - a cap with the image of the Pahonia Coat of Arms and the White-Red-White flag on file for the entire period of its storage, i.e. for three years.