Aliaksandr Yarashuk Sentenced to 10 Days of Jail for Newspaper Article

On 18 September Minsk Leninski Borough Court found Aliaksandr Yarashuk, Head of Belarusian Congress of democratic trade unions, guilty of disrespect to court (Article No. 166.1 of the Code of Administrative Violations) and sentenced him to 10 days of jail. The reason for the arrest was his article “Pyrrhic Victory, or Chronicle of Diving Trade Union” about the liquidation of the trade union of air traffic controllers, published in the newspaper “Narodnaya Volya” on 21 August 2003. In the article Aliaksandr yarashuk called the liquidation trial, conducted by the Supreme Court, a “farce, the end of which was known before the beginning” and also stated that Judge Halina Zhukowskaya ignored the testimonies in defense of the organization.