State Accuser Demands Three Years of Penal Colony for Andrei Klimau
According to RFE/RL
The trial of Andrei Klimau still continues at Minsk Tsentralny Borough Court. Mr. Klimau is charged with organization of the protest action on 25 of March, during which mass riot allegedly took place. The trial started on 6 June. On 8 June the judge announced a break so that Klimau’s wife Tatsiana Lieanovich who is his only defender could familiarize with the case materials and prepare to the debates. She didn’t expect the court would allow her defend her husband and said she was glad she would have the possibility to meet with him and help him.
In fact, the court prohibits to Tatsiana to speak with her husband. She has no possibility to have an eye-to-eye meeting with him in order to elaborate the conception of defense, as it is demanded by the Criminal-Process Code. Moreover, yesterday she wasn’t allowed even to meet with him at the investigative isolator. The administration referred to the duty instruction that prohibited to relatives to visit those whom they defend.
The license issued to Tatsiana Lieanovich by the judge Sviatlana Hanchar lets her to meet with husband only at court. Mrs. Lieanovich said she had almost lost consciousness when she saw her husband in the temporary detention cell during a break. The court is situated on the ground floor of a block house. The arrested persons are kept there in the cells the area of which is 1 x 0,5 meter and the height – about 0,5 meter as well. During the whole break Andrei stood there with his legs bent. She couldn’t even imagine such things are possible in the 21st century. The guards prohibited to her to pass to him a small bottle of water.
Today the court watched all the video-tapes, shot during the action by the police and secret services. Tatsiana Lieanovich said she was very impressed with the video:
-- It was clearly visible that demonstrators were rudely pushed out of Frantsysk Skaryna Avenue and Lenin Street and there wasn’t any real action.
The state accuser Vadzim Pazniak spoke for a quarter of an hour. The only evidence of Andrei Klimau’s guilt was that he confessed he attempted to organize the action on 25 March. Even Pazniak confessed it didn’t take place. Nevertheless, the state accuser asked to punish the accused with three years of strict regime colony and stated that the amnesty that was declared on 6 May won’t spread on this case. We should remind that Vadzim Pazniak has already played the role of the state accuser during the trial of Mikola Statkievich and Paviel Sieviaryniets. Both of them were sentenced to three years of personal restraint, which was reduced by one year by the amnesty.
