A prosecutor asked for eight years in a penal colony with a strict security regime for a Belarusian Social Democratic Party candidate Mikolai Statkevich and for seven years in prison for another presidential candidate, Dzimitry Vuss. The prosecution is demanding the highest sentence of eight-and-a-half-year for Alexander Klaskauski, a former policeman who was wearing his uniform during the demonstration and tried to stop the special police unit from attacking the protesters.
For the four other dissidents on trial: Alexander Kvyatkyewych, Dzmitriy Bulanov, Andrei Pazniak and Artsiom Hrybkov, the prosecutor asked for four years of penal colony.
All of them are accused of organizing mass unrest. Vuss, an independent candidate who had not previously taken an active part in life of the Belarusian opposition, is accused of informing Statkievich about the location and size of the police units in Minsk center during the December 19th demonstration.
Prosecution claims that Statkevich, after having received the information, estimated that the police did not have enough forces to tackle riots and urged people to storm the governments buildings. Another charges were related to the losses suffered by McDonald‘s and Minsk transport company, which were allegedly caused by the accused.
Belsat
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