Court sentences Pavel Vinahradau to 10 days of prison
Pavel Vinahradau waiting for police officers. Photo by Aliaksandra Dynko.
On August 23, the Court of Minsk’s Maskouski district considered an administrative case against activist of the Zmena opposition movement Pavel Vinahradau. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail for alleged hooliganism (Article 17.1 of the Administrative Code).
Earlier that day, the activist’s apartment was visited by police officers who demanded that he opened the door. This is how he described it in his Facebook account: “They want the door opened. And I do not want to. We agreed that in two hours I will go out myself. I’ll go with the things, of course. Farewell, dear FB! See you in a couple of weeks.”
After a while Pavel Vinahradau went downstairs, where he was detained by police and taken to the police department of Maskouski district. There, the activist was accused of disorderly conduct, namely allegedly swearing outside the police department. He was then brought to court. Judge Aliaksandr Petrash, despite the obvious absurdity of the charges, ruled to punish the activist with an arrest of 10 days.
Pavel Vinahradau pleaded not guilty and said he did not understand what had caused his detention.
The previous day, Pavel Vinahradau wrote in his blog on the website belaruspartisan.org that Zmena had hoisted 100 white-red-white flags across the country.
