Journalist gets beaten, fined on assignment in Minsk court

Tut.by journalist Pavel Dabravolski was beaten in a courtroom of Minsk's Frunzenski District Court. It happened at the trial of the "graffiti case" defendants. Dabravolski was filming the police police take Pavel Syarhei and Maxim Shitsik out of the room for organizing a protest against political repressions (see. Video).

According to tut.by quoting human rights defenders, the detained activists and journalist were beaten in one of the premises of the Court. Afterwards, they were taken to a police station, where an administrative report under articles "contempt of court" and "disobeying the official" was filed against them. Later Syarhei, Shitsikau and Dabravolski were taken back to court to stand trial. The first of them was fined 10.5 million rubles, the rest - 9.45 million. This decision was passed by the Judge Maryia Yarokhina, with police officer Syarhei Kavalchuk who reportedly participated in the beating of the journalist as a witness.

Pavel Dabravolski said that several riot police officers beat him with their feet for 20 minutes. However, they clearly saw the journalist's press ID. According to Dabravolsky, they took his phone and erased all the data.