Trial over the editor of the unregistered newspaper "Volny Gorod" Sergei Nerovny and Vadim Stefanenko, who used to deliver the edition from the press in Smolensk to the town of Krychev, was held on February 20 in Krychev. Nerovny and Stefanenko were charged under two articles of the Penal Code (154 and 172/1) - for violating business activities rules and the law on press. Both men were fined 50 minimum wages each (approximately $160). The jury punished them for delivering the papers by train and for exceeding the allowed volume of circulation - 300 copies. The trial was preceded by severe confrontation between the local authorities and the "Volny Gorod" edition.

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At the February 20 press-conference head of the State expert criminology center of the Ministry for the Interior of Belarus colonel Vyacheslav Kudryavtsev refused to tell the journalists about the results of the expertise of the material evidence from the disappearance cases of ORT cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky and prominent Belarusian opposition politician Viktor Gonchar (and also Anatoly Krasovsky who was accompanying Gonchar on that day).

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Belarusian TV journalist Yaroslav Beklemistchev received political refuge in the United States of America. Former host of a youth program "Krok" Yaroslav Beklemistchev was dismissed from his job by the leadership of the National Television Company in March last year, for having invited to participate in his program an author of the documentary "Ordinary president" Yuri Khastchevatsky.

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