Humiliating treatment
8- 11.12.2007, 16:23
The trial over the deputy head of the Belarusian Popular Front party Viktar Ivashkevich has started today in the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk.
The politician suffering from near-sightedness was taken to the court room without glasses. As it turned out, the glasses had been seized from him by policemen of the Tsentralny district.
The politician spent the night in the special detention center in Akrestsin Street. He submitted two motions to the court: to invite a lawyer, and about a necessity to return glasses to him.
As the Charter’97 press-center was informed by a human rights activist Uladzimir Labkovich, first judge Bychko refused to take the motion about the glasses, saying that the lawyer is to read all materials. But after the second demand by Ivashkevich, he was forced to agree. Policemen returned to the police department to take Ivashkevich’s glasses, while the politician was placed to the so-called “goblet”, a tiny area in the courtroom.
As we have informed, Ivashkevich was detained yesterday in Chyrvonaya Street in Minsk. A meeting of entrepreneurs was taking part on Kastrychitskaya Square at that moment. The politician was illegally charged with “petty hooliganism” and arrested.
