Valery Levaneuski Placed to Prison Hospital :: Charter'97 :: News

After the hunger strike the Belarusian political prisoner Valery Levaneuski was placed in prison medical unit of Ivatsevichy colony. The prisoner has a heart ache, and he is taking a course of treatment. The son of the vendor leader, Uladzimir Levaneuski, told about it to the Charter’97 press center. The leader of the National strike committee of vendors, member of the Council of Civil Initiatives “Free Belarus” was on hunger strike for more than a week. Valery Levaneuski demands dismissal of the head of the penal jurisdiction department of the Interior Ministry of Belarus Uladzimir Kouchur. The leader of Hrodna vendors charges the head of the penal system of Belarus with violation of his rights. Uladzimir Kouchur does not answer to Valery Levaneuski’s appeals against, as he says, illegal punishments, because of which he would not be amnestied in 2005.

On September 7, 2004 court of the Lenin district of Hrodna found Valery Levaneuski, the chairman of the National Strike Committee of Vendors, member of the Council of Civil Initiatives “Free Belarus”, and Alyaksandr Vasilyeu, deputy chairman of the National Strike Committee of Vendors, guilty of public slander of Belarusian President connected with a grave crime (Article 368 Part 2 of the Criminal Code), and sentenced them to two years of imprisonment of the minimum-security colony. It was written in the verdict that the sentence “Come and say that you are against somebody’s skiing in Austria at your expense”, printed in leaflets, contains insult of honour and dignity of the president of the Republic of Belarus. Besides, Alyaksandr Vasilyeu has been convicted for organizing a mass protest action in Hrodna on May 1, 2004.
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