Young opposition activist Pavel Vinahradaw arrested by police over «pig protest»
The 25-year-old Vinahradaw, leader of Zmena (Change), the youth wing of
the “Tell the Truth!” movement, and his associates stood in the square
for several minutes, holding pig heads that featured a number of
messages, including, "Even I didn`t vote for Luka," "Sasha, don`t be a
pig, release the political prisoners," "Why did they raise salaries for
officials and not doctors?"
As Mr. Vinahradaw`s wife told
BelaPAN, her husband was grabbed by police near their house and driven
to the Maskowski district police station.
"The police also
picked up Pavel`s father, who happened to be there by accident," she
said. "No charges so far have been brought against them, but they have
been searched and had their shoelaces seized. This means that they will
probably stand trial."
In May 2011, Mr. Vinahradaw was sentenced
to four years in prison in connection with a post-election protest
staged in the Belarusian capital city on December 19, 2010. He was among
11 post-election protesters pardoned by Alyaksandr Lukashenka on
September 14, 2011.
In April 2012, Mr. Vinahradaw was placed
under "preventive" police supervision. He is prohibited from leaving
Minsk without police permission and required to stay at home from 8 p.m.
to 7 a.m. and report to probation officers on a regular basis.
Last year Mr. Vinahradaw stood trial at least 10 times for various minor civil offenses and spent a total of 66 days in jail.
In
particular, he served a 10-day and a five-day jail sentence for
so-called toy protests, in which teddy bears and other soft toys were
displayed holding miniature signs calling for freedoms and the release
of political prisoners.
He served his most recent jail term
between April 22 and May 4, 2013 for planting a white-red-white flag and
an image of imprisoned former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich
in downtown Minsk.
