In Gomel the release of political prisoners is demanded

Activists of "European Belarus" have carried out an action of information in Gomel, in support of political prisoners.

The main aim of the action was to attract people’s attention to the “puppet court” trials of political prisoners in the country.

We remind you that Aleksandr Otroshchenkov, the press secretary of the presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, was sent to maximum security prison for 4 years on the fabricated charge of taking part in the so-called riots. This is how the dictatorship describes the peaceful protest by many thousands of Belarusians against the falsified results of the presidential elections on 19 December.

For taking part in an act of protest against the falsified results of presidential elections on 19 December 2010, Dmitrii Bondarenko, a coordinator of the civil campaign “European Belarus’, who was a personal aide of the Belarusian presidential candidate for Andrei Sannikov, was convicted of “organizing group activities that seriously breach public order”.

The judge of the Pervomaiskii Court of Minsk, Tatyana Revinskaya, sentenced the prominent politician and human rights activist to 2 years in an ordinary prison. Simanovskii, the state prosecutor, asked that Bondarenko be sentenced to three years of ordinary imprisonment.

The court trial of the leader of the civil campaign “European Belarus” and presidential candidate, Andrei Sannikov, began in the Partizanskii Court of Minsk on 27 April and continues to this day.

The presidential candidate is accused of organising riots on 19 December 2010. The criminal penalty under this article (Part 1 of Article 293) provides up to 15 years imprisonment.

An activist of Andrei Sannikov’s team, the historian Dmitrii Drozd, was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment in a “harsh regime” prison for taking part in “riots”.

The candidates Dmitrii Uss and Nikolai Statkevich are also accused of organising riots. They will be judged on 11 May. Charges against the remaining people in the course of the investigation have been softened from “organising and taking part in riots” to “organization of group activities which severely breach public order.” On the same day, the trial of Sannikov’s wife, the journalist Irina Khalip, will start.