Two criminal cases against Andrei Kim merged into one
On 1 April, at 2 p.m. the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk started trying the criminal case against the youth activist Andrei Kim. The trial was attended by Liavon Barshcheuski, Ales Bialiatski, Alena Ilyina, Aliaksandr Milinkevich, Mikola Statkevich, Vintsuk Viachorka and representatives of foreign embassies.
In the beginning of the trial the judge Alena Ilyina ruled to prohibit taking photos and videos. The three journalists who disobeyed to this requirement were taken out of the court hall.
Kim’s lawyer Sidarenka solicited for change of the restraint to the defendant. Kim could be released on bail with his mother Tatsiana Kim and the entrepreneur Ihar Lednik as guarantors, but it wasn’t done.
The state accuser Lukianau solicited for merging the two criminal cases against Kim into one. Bear in mind that charges under Article 364 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (violence or a threat to use violence against a policeman with an aim to prevent him from performing his lawful activities) were brought against Kim within the frames of the first case and under article 342 (organization of active participation in mass riot) – in the second. What concerns the second case, there are nine more accused in it. So, since the two cases were merged into one, Andrei Kim will be tried together with other accused persons.
