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Palchys: My Freedom Resulted From Civil Society’s Solidarity

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Palchys: My Freedom Resulted From Civil Society’s Solidarity
EDUARD PALCHYS
PHOTO: BELAPAN

The blogger has said he will continue the activity of the website 1863х.com.

Blogger Eduard Palchys, who has been released in the court hall on October 28, believes that his sentence has resulted from the support rendered by the civil society. He has said this to the journalists in court.

Palchys has thanked all the journalists and unindifferent people for having fought for him. “My freedom appears the merit of every one of you. I felt this great support in the remand prison. I thought they would imprison me for three years. The sentence is the result of the civil society’s support. No one needs people serving in jail over politics,” — the blogger has said. Besides, he turned 26 today.

Palchys could not reveal the details of the trial as he had signed a non-disclosure agreement, naviny.by write. “I believe they went for the closed regime to prevent the people from seeing this “show”. I am facing another trial on November 3 – the court will decide on whether to consider my website “extremist”,” – he has noted.

The blogger has also stated he would continue writing articles at the website as soon as the law enforcement agencies return him his computer equipment. “The gentlemen from the force structures only made it worse for themselves - I used to be a small blogger and now everyone knows about my website,” — Eduard Palchys has said.

To the question, whether the freedom of word existed in Belarus, the convicted blogger answered: “It’s relative. It depends on how many years in prison you will get for it.”

Civil activists were holding an action of solidarity with the blogger under the court walls since the very start of the trial (October 14).

Many leaders of the opposition parties and movements have come to the court on October 28 to support Eduard Palchys — Yauhen Afnahel, Maksim Viniarski, Pavel Yukhnevich, Pavel Seviarynets, Zmitser Dashkevich, Mikalai Statkevich.

The activists managed to bring the white-red-white flags to the court hall and greeted the sentence with the chants “Long Live Belarus!”, “We Believe, We Can, We Will Win!”. The court just couldn’t admit all the arrived people.

Editor of the website 1863x.com Eduard Palchys, known as Jhon Silver, has been sentenced to a year and nine months of liberty limitation without sending to a specialized facility, and released in the court hall. The restraint has been changed for a non-leave obligation. The Minsk city court has taken this decision on October 28. The prosecutor demanded to sentence the blogger to 3,5 years of imprisonment.

The 26-year-old Palchys, whose case was considered in the closed regime, has been found guilty under two articles of the Criminal Code: incitement of hatred on the grounds of race, nationality, religion, language, or other social affiliation (Part 1, Art. 130), as well as the production and distribution of pornographic materials or items of a pornographic nature (Art. 343 of the Criminal Code).

Given the fact that during the investigation and trial the defendant was in custody, he will be under supervision for one year. He remains under house arrest. The verdict may be appealed and challenged in the Supreme Court.

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