Man gets 3 years in prison over fight with undercover police agents
Photo: svaboda.org
Minsk's Maskouski District Court on 12 March sentenced Sviataslau Baranovich to three years in a colony. The time that Baranovich had spent in a detention centre (October 3, 2017 – March 11, 2018) would be counted in.
People present at the hearing started shouting “Shame!” when the court ruling was pronounced.
Baranovich was charged with violently resisting the police officers on duty. In March 2017, he defended the anarchists that were being grabbed by unknown men - later to be identified as plainclothes police agents - during a protest against the Social Parasitism tax.
Local human rights defenders will not recognize Baranovich as a political prisoner because he used violence, Belarusian Helsinki Committee head Aleh Hulak said.
Baranovich was sentenced to 3 years of home penal labour for taking part in the 2010 post-election protest. Back then, he was recognized as a political prisoner.
