Detentions after trade union leaders sentenced in Belarus

The police detained more than ten people near a court building in Minsk, where the verdict to the independent trade union leaders had been pronounced earlier today. The list of detainees includes among others Volha Mikalaychyk, Leanid Kulakou, Ales Abramovich, Maya Navumava, Uladzimir Neyumyarzhytski, Pavel Mrochka, Aliaksandr Chmykhau. They are likely to face charges of staging an unauthorized mass rally. The activists were holding Belarusian white-red-white flags and EU flags. Mikalai Statkevich and Maksim Vinyarski were detained later.

The REP independent trade union leader Henadz Fyadynich and union accountant Ihar Komlik today were sentenced to four years of 'restricted liberty.' They were found guilty of large-scale tax evasion.

Restricted liberty is a suspended custodial sentence with parole-like restrictions.