Former political prisoner Mikita Likhavid gets extra term for December 2010 events

Representatives of Minsk Pershamaiski District Police Department demand that former political prisoner Mikita Likhavid gets an additional 10 days of administrative arrest for participation in the post-election protest back on December 19, 2010, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.

On December 20, 2010, Mikita Likhavid was sentenced to 15 days in jail for taking part in the protest, but on December 25 he was transferred to a pre-trial prison as a defendant in a criminal case, which resulted in his sentencing to 3.5 years in a medium security penal colony. He was released early in September 2011.

According to the police, not only Likhavid but many other persons convicted on administrative charges did not fully serve their sentences. Meanwhile, they stress there is no statute of limitations on such sentences.

Mikita Likhavid considers the decision illegal, as, first, more than three months have passed since the verdict, and, second, he served his sentence for the events under criminal procedures, while under the law no one can be punished for one offense more than once. However, Mikita does not know how to appeal the decision, as more than two years have passed since its adoption.

Lawyer Pavel Sapelka believes that legally the authorities can justify the need to serve additional terms for the 2010 events, but what’s most important in this story is that the very liability for participating in unsanctioned rallies in the form in which it exists in Belarus is illegal, since it runs counter to bot the Constitution and the international standards.