Mikola Statkevich Is Fined

According to pahonia.promedia.by

On 7 April Aliaksei Bychko, judge of Minsk Tsentralny Borough Court fined the oppositional activist Mikola Statkevich 3,8 million rubles (about 1 600 US dollars). M. Statkevich was found guilty in participation in the unauthorized meeting of businessmen that took place on 1 March. After it Mikola Statkevich was fined about 100 US dollars for insult of the judge’s honor.

On 6 April Mikola Statkevich received summons from Minsk Tsentralny Borough Board of Internal Affairs where it was stated that he was accused in active participation in the meeting that was held on 1 March (part 2 of Article #167 of the Code of Administrative Violations).

Mikola Statkevich said: -- I was surprised they recollected about the meeting and decided to punish only me for speaking there, though there were about a dozen of other speakers, including the vice-prime-minister Andrei Kabiakou. The police didn’t warn that the meeting was unauthorized. I wrote on the case that I considered it to be politically motivated and connected with the fact that Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaia Hramada) and European Coalition are going to nominate me as a candidate to the presidential election. I was taken to the court. The judge, Aliaksei Bychko, behaved very rudely, he ordered me to stand up for testimony. I had to behave as the circumstances demanded and sat during my testimony. As a result, I was fined about 3,8 million rubles.