Lawyer from St. Petersburg arrested for 3 days in Minsk
- 28.10.2014, 9:27
- 2,631
Andrei Fedorkov spent 2 days in an isolation cell with no reason given.
Charter97.org has been informed about that by a reader Yuliya.
On October 25 Russian and Belarusian citizens were detained in Minsk with no reason given. Among the citizens of Russia there was a lawyer from St. Petersburg, Andrei Fedorkov. He arrived to the capital of Belarus on a working visit, accompanied by his associate Ivan Solovyov.
“They were detained in a bus stop, allegedly for use of foul speech and insubordination to police. Officers in mufti, not in uniform, rushed to them, pinned their arms to their sides and threw them into a minibus. One guy from Minsk tried to escape, but policemen shouted: “Stop, or we will shoot!” Their things were seized, in some strange way our notebook was seized as well, though the guys didn’t have it with them. During the trial riot policemen were witnesses, they gave confusing evidence, they crumpled. In the police department they were asked about Ukraine, about presidents and even about Poroshenko,” she wrote.
The detainees together with their Belarusian colleagues were kept in the police department of Zavadski district of Minsk (Kabushkina, 36) for 2 days. Today they stood trial in the administrative case fabricated by Belarusian special services. Judge Osipchyk convicted the three activists of violations under Article 17.1 (petty hooliganism) and 23.4 of the Administrative Code (insubordination to a legal order or demand of an official on duty) and sentenced them to different terms of arrest: the Belarusian activist was sentenced to 10 days, Russians to 3 days of arrest.
The detention took place before the conference of an organisation planned for Sunday, October 26. The activists were harshly detained by special services with the use of non-lethal weapons. At the moment the lawyer is preparing a cassation appeal.
Andrei Fedorkov is a lawyer from St. Petersburg who many times provided legal assistance to detained participants of oppositional rallies.
