Oppositionist from Brest imprisoned for 4 years

The verdict was delivered by Brest region’s court on 12 March.

A judge Mikalaj Sianko sentenced Vital Koush to a punishment of a four year imprisonment, which the opposition activist will serve in a high security prison. He will also see the confiscation of property, the human rights center Viasna reports.

Vital Koush was accused of helping eight citizens of India to illegally cross the Belarusian-Polish border with the use of a rope thrown over the barbed wire in May last year.

The border violator were detained and deported from Belarus later. In some time a video was posted in the Internet in which the Hindus told that during the time that they spent in a detention center the representatives of Belarusian law enforcement agencies made them testify against the people unknown to them.

At the beginning of September Vital Koush was detained near his house with the relatives witnessing and has been kept in custody by now. He did not acknowledge the guilt in court. The prosecutor demanded to sentence the civic activist to five years in prison.