College Board of Hrodna Regional Court Upholds Sentence to Levanewski and Vasilyew

According to non-state newspaper “Pahonia”

Having considered the cassation complaints of the head of the national strike committee of entrepreneurs Valery Levanewski and his substitute Aliaksandr Vasilyew the College Board on criminal cases of Hrodna Regional Court left in force the sentence to them, two years of colony. It means that soon they will be transferred to a penal colony from Hrodna Investigative Isolator.

Before the trial Valery Levanewski solicited for personal participation in the sitting of the College Board. The petition was turned down. In his cassation complaint Valery Levanewski wrote that “the case was fabricated for political reasons” and Aliaksandr Vasilyew wrote that he didn’t commit any crimes and claimed innocent.

The opinion of the attorney, Aliaksandr Birylaw, is that the verdict was issued with violations of the legislative norms. At the sitting of the College Board he described all violations of the criminal process code that were made during the investigation and the trial:

-- None of the solicitations of Levanewski and Vasilyew were satisfied, none of their witnesses were interrogated, -- stated Aliaksandr Birylaw.

However, these arguments didn’t convince the judges. The College Board on criminal cases with the judge Aliaksandr Korzun at the head stated there were no reasons to set the sentence aside.

We should remind that the leaders of Hrodna entrepreneurs were found guilty in violation of part 2 of article #368 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, “Public insult of president accompanied with charges in commitment of a felony” and sentenced to two years of colony.