Civil activist Mikhail Pashkevich sentenced to 7 days of arrest

On 31 May Mikhail Pashkevich, an activists of the civil campaign "Tell the Truth!" came to Minsk to assist residents of the village of Yakimava Slabada in preparing to a local referendum concerning the construction of the plant of bleached cellulose.

He was detained by police after the assembly of villagers. At 10.15 a.m. on 1 June Pashkevich's lawyer left for Svetlahorsk in order to defend his client at the trial, which was to have begun in Svetlahorsk at 2 p.m.

However, instead the case was considered in Minsk, without the lawyer. Mikhail Pashkevich was sentenced to 7 days of arrest.

Reference: Mikhail Pashkevich is a well-known civil activist. On 10 January 2008 he was detained and beaten for participation in an action of protest of Minsk entrepreneurs. After this he was sentenced to 15 days of arrest by Judge Samaseika.

On 22 April 2008 he was punished again for the same "violation": Alena Iliina, Judge of the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk found him guilty under Article 342 of the Criminal Code ("Organization of or active participation in group action which grossly violate the public order") and sentenced him to two years of personal restraint without direction to an open penitentiary institution. On 11 June 2009 Mikhail Pashkevich was amnestied.

After this he was repeatedly received politically motivated administrative penalties. In particular, on 27 December 2010 he was sentenced to 15 days of arrest for participation in an action of solidarity with the participants of "Square-2010", sentenced to long prison terms for political reasons.