Vitsebsk journalist Vaszim Barshcheuski was called to court by phone without official appointment on May, 11.

According to Radio Svaboda Vitsebsk journalist Vaszim Barshcheuski was called to Pershamaiski borough court by phone without official appointment on May, 11 according to the incident happened on April 31 when the road policemen detained his car and found 25 thousand leaflets with the text “Social Control”. The leaflets described the events of March 25 at Kastrychnitskaia Square.
The detention took place at 9 PM and the policemen held Vadzim Barshcheuski and his son Aleh in the department the whole night. When the next day Mr. Barshcheuski came to get his car back the policemen claimed explanations about the leaflets. Vadzim Barshcheuski refused to give explanations and was accused of insubordination to the police.
Vadzim Barshcheuski said that he hadn’t received any official notions of appointment before and had no information about his case. But at 1 PM the policemen from Pershamaiski police dpt. called him and offered to take him to the judicial sitting which was to start at 2 PM.
Its still unclear whose initiative it was to call Mr. Barshcheuski. The judge Natallia Dasko said she hadn’t ordered to take Mr. Barshcheuski to court with force. Having accepted the petition of a lawyer and taking into account the fact that no policemen witnesses came to the sitting Mrs. Dasko postponed the sitting to May 22.
Vitsebsk lawyer Mikhail Zamalin agreed to defend Mr. Barshcheuski in court. Mr. Zamalin has recently often defended opposition representatives.