Today in the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk trials over five activists of the Conservative Christian party Belarusian Popular Front were held. On April 7 they gathered on October Square in Minsk to protest against rigged results of the presidential elections. The deputy chairman of the party Yury Belenki was charged with holding an unsanctioned rally and sentenced to 15 days of arrest. Four more activists of the party were found guilty of participation in an unsanctioned protest. Illya Shymanski and Uladzimir Nikalaeu are sentenced to 15 days of arrest; Eduard Bokij and Uladzimir Bahach are sentenced to 10 days of arrest. The verdicts were passed by judge Alyaksei Bychko.
Educator-turned-politician Aleksandr Kozulin, who ran for president in March`s election, has requested Valentin Sukalo, chairman of the Supreme Court, to overturn decisions by the central election commission and the Supreme Court.
As the BelTA informs, on the initiative of the Russian side, a telephone talk of Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin took place on April 8. The official news agency said that the essence of the conversation was “discussion of some aspects of bilateral relations”. Besides, the head of the country presiding in the G-8 once again congratulated Alyaksandr Lukashenka with a “victory” in the presidential elections and with swearing in for the third term as the president of Belarus.
On April 8, on the day of illegal taking the oath of office for a third time by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the Russian party “Union of the Right Forces” initiated a protest by the building of the Belarusian Embassy in Moscow. The protest was supported by the members of the movements “Russian Radicals” and “Oborona”. Participants of the picket were holding streamers with the words “Sasha [Alyaksandr], a place in the Hague is vacant!”, “Stop Lukashism!”, “Long live Belarus!”, “Disgrace to Lukashenka’s fascist regime!”, “Lukashenka, your place is in the Hague, not in Minsk!”, and scanned “Disgrace!”
The police department of Maskouski district of Minsk has brought up a criminal action against “some person unknown”, who inflicted bodily harm to a journalist of “Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus” Aleh Ulevich. It was stated in the official letter received by the Belarusian Association of Journalists from the head of the Internal Affairs Department of Minsk city executive committee, Major-General A. Kulyashou.
On April 15 in Minsk, in a military camp in the district of “Uruchcha”, a Neo-Nazi rock-concert is to take place. It is called “Rock against liberalism”. Bands of neo-nazi character are to take part in the concert: “Oskal” (Vitsebsk), “Our War” (Minsk), “Nord Wolf” (Vitsebsk), “Nasaferus” (Minsk), “Kryda” (Dzerzhynsk).
Mahiliou Zubr activists expressed protest against dictator’s “coronation”. About hundred of new graffiti with slogan “Fed up with him!” appeared in Mahiliou this weekend. See pictures.
On April 10 at 11 a.m. the court of Pershamajski district of Minsk started hearings in the case of several teenagers, among which is Anton Filimonau, the son of Veranika Charkasava, a journalist murdered in 2004. Family and friends of Anton, colleagues of his mother, representatives of the OSCE office came to the hearings. However not all of them were allowed to enter the court room. The guards have not allowed some reporters and even family member of Anton to enter the court room referring to the size of the room, the press service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists informs.
The court of Pershamajski district of Minsk reject suit of the chairman of the United Civil Party Anatol Lyabedzka against the Belarusian TV and Radio Company and authors of the TV film “Managed Chaos. Conspiracy Theory”. As the Interfax correspondent told, the court decided that “information in the film represent the facts truly, and cannot be called discrediting honour, dignity and business reputation”.
On Monday the European Union has officially introduced sanctions against the Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka and 30 high-ranking officials. All of them are non grata persons in the EU countries.
President Alexander Lukashenko took the oath of office yesterday and told the West, which accuses him of rigging his reelection, that the former Soviet republic would not fall to the ``revolutionary virus." Lukashenko belied suggestions that he had been badly rattled by unprecedented opposition protests against his landslide election victory and looked in full command during a grandiose ceremony marking the start of his third term in office.
President Alexander Lukashenko was sworn in for a third term Saturday and blamed the West for fomenting protests that the vote was fraudulent and undemocratic. Several thousand officials and lawmakers gave a standing ovation to a somber-looking Lukashenko, who took his oath at a ceremony in the huge concrete Palace of the Republic.
In Hrodna there was brought a criminal case for falsification of the signatures for nomination of Aliaksandr Kazulin candidate to the presidential position of the Republic of Belarus. One of the witnesses in the case is the fourth-year student of Hrodna University Iulia Kasper, who coordinated the collection of signatures for Mr Kazulin. A policeman took her to interrogation right from classes. At the police she was informed that there were testimonies of students that some of the collected signatures were forged. Iulia Kasper was advised to cooperate with the police and give true testimony. They threatened that otherwise he can face problems at the place of study, turn into an accused and can be put into isolator.
The leader of the Young Front Zmitser Dashkevich was detained on 24 March during the seizure of the tent camp. The police composed two violation reports on him. One of them (article 167.1, participation in unauthorized mass action) became the reason why Minsk Maskouski Borough Court sentenced him to 15 days of jail, and another - the reason to add 5 more. At present he is serving his prison term at the detention center in Akrestsin St in Minsk.
Canadian journalist Frederick Lavoie has been released from a Belarus jail 15 days after he was among hundreds arrested during protests over controversial election results. The 22-year-old Saguenay, Que., native went to the former Soviet Republic in February to cover the election campaign. He was working for the Montreal daily La Presse and for the Quotidien, a Saguenay paper. On March 24, Mr. Lavoie was arrested during a pro-democracy rally in Minsk, the capital city. President Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected in a vote riddled with irregularities and fraud, according to western observers. He was sworn in yesterday in a ceremony charged with all the pomp of the Soviet days. Mr. Lavoie is expected home tomorrow.
On 11 March at a bus stop in Minsk four persons in plain clothes detained the fourth-year student of Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radio-electronics Mikhail Volchak. During the detention they broke his thumb. Later he was also beaten at Minsk Maskouski Borough Board of Internal Affairs. He asked for help, feeling heartache. The ambulance was called only 4 hours after he asked for it. Nobody informed his relatives about the detention, they found about it on occasion. On 13 March Mr Volchak was sentenced to 12 days of jail by the judge of Minsk Maskouski Borough Court Reutskaia. Before the trial an ambulance was called to Volchak. The medics demanded his urgent hospitalization because of hypertonic crisis, but he was taken back to the court. The policemen who beat him were also witnesses at the trial. They accused him of swearing (article 156 of the Code of Administrative Violations, petty hooliganism).
Poland on Friday reaffirmed its support of sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) on Belarus in spite of Minsk releasing Warsaw`s former ambassador Mariusz Maszkiewicz from prison.
EU foreign ministers are expected to endorse a decision to cut direct aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government at a meeting on Monday, while seeking to limit the effect on ordinary Palestinians.
Hearing of the case brought up against the activists of the youth resistance movement “Zubr” Alyaksandr Kazakou and Zmitser Zubro took place in April 7 in the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk. Alyaksandr Kazakou and Zmitser Zubro were sentenced to two years of restraint of liberty (corrective works).
The Kremlin prepared a truly original gift for the inauguration of President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus, whom many in the West call "the last dictator in Europe." Gazprom, the Russian energy behemoth, set a deadline of April 30 for Lukashenko to either forgo a strategic Belarussian gas asset or start buying Russian gas at market prices as of 2007.
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