Activist fined for solidarity with political prisoners in Mikashevichy

Vital Kalinouski must pay a fine of 540,000 rubles for exercising the constitutional right to collect and distribute information.

The decision was taken by the administrative commission of the Mikashevichy city executive committee, Radio Racyja reports.

The commission agreed with the police report that charged Vital Kalinouski with distributing non-advertising leaflets without permission.

According to Vital Kalinouski, the commission listened to his explanations about leaflets with information about political prisoners and split over the size of the fine. A young woman from the commission proposed to fine the activist 1 basic amount instead of 3 but received an angry look from Halina Satsevich, the head of the commission and head of the city executive committee.

On May 26, Vital Kalinouski was distributing leaflets with photos of Belarusian political prisoners in his native town. He timed his campaign to the trial over political prisoner Yury Rubtsou in Pruzhany.