Pavel Sevyarynets may have his «restricted freedom» sentence softened

Opposition politician Pavel Sevyarynets may have his sentence of "restricted freedom" and corrective labor softened.

The administration of an open-type correctional institution where Mr. Sevyarynets is serving his three-year term concluded at a meeting on October 27 that the 34-year-old co-chairman of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party had "set out on the path of reform." 

As Mr. Sevyarynets told BelaPAN, administration officials described him at the meeting as a polite and communicative person with a clean disciplinary record and even said that he "has legal knowledge." 

Mr. Sevyarynets said that he had not admitted his guilt at the meeting. 

According to the politician, he may be released from the correctional institution in Pruzhany, Brest region, and allowed to serve the rest of his sentence at his home in Vitsyebsk. If that is the case, he will have to find a job and stay at home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. every day. 

"It may be more advantageous for the authorities to send me to my home in Vitsyebsk. In that case I would no longer be a political prisoner but would remain under supervision. But 'restricted freedom' at home is still punishment," Mr. Sevyarynets said. 

On May 16, Mr. Sevyarynets, who was candidate Vital Rymashewski’s campaign manager during last year’s presidential race, was convicted n connection with a post-election protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010. A district judge found him guilty of organizing disturbances and participating in them.