Minsk City Court denies amnesty to Ales Straltsou

According to an official letter signed by Judge V.Putsila, Minsk City Court has turned down the claim by Ales Straltsou, one of the accused in the ‘case of 14’, against the verdict by Minsk Tsentralny Court of 15 June 2009. The verdict reduced the punishment Mr.Straltsou must have been released from under the Law on Amnesty.
‘Under Article 21 of the Law on Amnesty of 5 May 2009, the application of amnesty to persons convicted to restraint of liberty without sending them to an open type institution as a result of a valid judgment, are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior’, says the letter.
Meanwhile, Belarusian human rights activists have repeatedly called upon the authorities to grant a prompt and unambiguous amnesty to all the participants of the ‘process of 14’ and stresses that the issue has not been attended to properly.