Pershamaiski borough court of Minsk accused journalist Vadzim Barshcheuski of insubordination to the policemen and fined him by five conditional units.
On March 31 the road policemen detained Mr. Barshcheuskis car and found 20 thousand leaflets with Social Control note on them. The leaflets told about the actions of March 25 in Minsk.
The detention took place at 9 PM and the policemen held Vadzim Barshcheuski and his son Aleh in the department the whole night. The police said they will search the car and told Mr. Barshcheuski to get it back the next day. 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.
The accusation had been under examined for three court sittings. The judge was of Pershamaiski borough court of Minsk Natalla Dasko. Vadzim Barshcheuski claimed to call all the witnesses of his case to court. But as Vadzim Barshcheuski told Radio Svaboda, the judge took into account only the evidence of a policeman: All the evidence but the policemans were in my favour. Two guys told the court how it all happened and I was speaking for 20 minutes. I was trying to explain there hadnt been any violations of law. The judge listened to it all and then even without any break read out the decision and said all the evidence witnessed I was resisting the policemen. Ill write an appellation to region court, Ill write to Minister if needed. And then Ill write a big article about this case.
Vadzim Barshcheuski said he is not as insulted by the fine (five conditional units is the lowest fine of article 156, which was implicated to Mr. Barshcheuski), as by the fact lawyer Paval Levinau was witnessing against him.
Mr. Levinau had been assisting Mr. Barshcheuski juridically all the time. He is going to write an appellation as well.