Expelled student detained on frame up
12:15, — Politics
On January 24 in the evening an activist of youth democratic movement Dzmitry Zhaleznichenka was detained in Homel.
As his mother Ala Zhaleznichenka told to BelaPAN, at about 5 p.m. Dzmitry went to a bank in order to get money. In about half an hour he called his mother and said that he was detained by two riot policemen. They explained their actions by the fact that Dzmitry reminds a person who is a suspect in committing a crime. D. Zhaleznichenka was taken to a police department. As said by his mother, he told that he resembled a man suspected of stealing money and was taken to a police station, where the victim of the theft reportedly recognized him as the thief.
Police drew up a fraud charge sheet against Mr. Zhaleznichenka and let him afterward. They warned the young man that he can be summoned for questioning in the future.
“They want to break me,” Mr. Zhaleznichenka told BelaPAN. “Authorities know that I may appeal my expulsion in court and be reinstated again. Maybe, they also want to intimidate me even more before sending me to the army. But, honestly speaking, I don’t see any logic in this provocation.”
A deputy chairman of the regional branch of the youth organization of the Belarusian Popular Front “Moladz BNF” and the deputy chairman of the public association “Talaka”, a third-year student D. Zhaleznichenka was expelled from Francis Skaryna Homel State University on September 7, 2007. Mr. Zhaleznichenka, who had an excellent performance record in the first two years of study, insisted that he had neither missed any classes nor behaved improperly in the new semester that began on September 1. He described his expulsion as politically motivated.
For 4 months the activist was appealing against his expulsion in different courts. On January 16 a district court in Homel overturned the first expulsion order and ruled that Mr. Zhaleznichenka should be reinstated as third-year student at the university’s mathematics faculty, where he had studied before September 2007. But on January 22 the dean signed another expulsion order for “violation of internal regulations”.
Despite the court ruling, Mr. Zhaleznichenka was called up for active military service and was ordered to appear on Friday to be sent to a Railroad Troops unit.
Mr. Zhaleznichenka could not have been drafted into the army when he was a full-time university student.
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