Criminal case opened against activist with anti-Lukashenka tattoo


On April 6, political prisoner Yury Rubtsou was taken to Pruzhany District Department of the Investigative Committee from the open corrective facility No. 7 in the village of Kuplin, together with his personal belongings, HRC Viasna reports. The activist is known to have gone on a hunger strike.

According  to  human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka, a criminal case under Article 415 of the Criminal Code (evasion from serving the sentence of imprisonment) has been brought up against Mr. Rubtsou. The article envisages up to three years of imprisonment.

It is to be recalled that  pictures of Yury Rubtsou with the tattoo ‘Lukashenka Go Away’ have recently appeared on the Internet.

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Yury Rubtsou, who was repeatedly detained and sentenced for wearing T-shirts with anti-Lukashenka slogans, made a tatoo on the occasion of Freedom Day. Local policemen were deprived of cash bonuses due to his tattoo, the prisoner says.

On October, 6 Yury Rubtsou was sentenced to 2.5 years of personal restraint for allegedly insulting a judge. However, the sentence was reduced to 1.5 years due to the amnesty. December 22, 2014 the activist started serving his term in an open-type correctional facility.

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In April 2014 Savetski district court in Minsk heard an administrative case against Yury Rubtsou detained at the Charnobyl Path rally that was  permitted by the authorities. Mr Rubtsou often wore a T-shirt bearing inscriptions ‘Lukashenka, go away!’ and ‘Fourfold President – not President but self-appointed tsar!’, which could not but irritate the authorities. After the rally policemen stripped him of his T-shirt and take Mr Rubtsou to court half-naked. Moreover, as he had no glasses he was unable to study the materials of his case. When he called this trial a ‘mockery’, judge Kiryl Palulekh interpreted the words as an insult.

In October, 2014 Yury Rubtsou was sentenced to 2.5 years of personal restraint for allegedly insulting a judge. However, the sentence was reduced to 1.5 years due to the amnesty. In December  the activist started serving his term in an open-type correctional facility.

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