Detained Young Front Activist Artur Finkevich Is Given Charges

In the evening of 31 January the police detained the activists of Young Front Artur Finkevich and Aliaksei Ianusheuski on suspicion in making the graffiti We Want New One! and He Pissed Us off! on the walls. Minsk Pershamaiski Borough Board of Internal Affairs (BBIA) brought a criminal case for “hooliganism”. The guys are kept in the temporary isolator. The police have already searched their houses and attached the property.

Today at 11 p.m. the three-day term of the legally provided detention without giving charges will be over. Aliaksandr Hlushchuk, vice-chair of the investigative department of the BBIA said the charges can be changed to “defilement of state property”. However, Artur Finkevich was accused of violation of part 2 of Article 339 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (malignant hooliganism). Soon he will be transferred from the temporary isolator to investigative isolator. It’s worth mentioning that the maximal punishment provided by Article 339 is 6 years of jail. Artur Finkevich doesn’t take the blame.

Aliaksei Ianusheuski remains a suspect in the previously brought criminal case but hasn’t yet received charges and most probably will be released under the written undertaking not to leave the city.