Je suis Jhon Silver: Opposition activist urges Belarusians to support arrested blogger
The closed trial of Eduard Palchys is to start in Minsk on October 14 at 10:00. Zmitser Dashkevich, a leader of youth opposition organization Young Front, calls on Belarusians to ‘make a show’ at the building of the Minsk City Court.
He published his appeal on 1863x.com, a political blog created by Eduard Palchys aka Jhon Silver. It is dedicated to the current political developments in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, as well as Belarusian history and culture. The unsigned materials sharply criticized the regimes of Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Vladimir Putin.
Dashkevich promised to start collecting signatures under one of the articles by Jhon Silver. Everyone who would like to will be able to put their name and surname.
“By this, we will show that each of us is Jhon Silver. If they want to lock him up, they should jail us as well. Do they want a show? There will be a show!” the activist said.
The blogger may face up to five years of imprisonment for ‘inciting hatred’ and up to two or for years in jail – for allegedly distributing pornography. Nine articles were recognised extremist. The charges are pointless and artificial, Belarusian human rights defenders say. According to them, Eduard Palchys is another political prisoner of Lukashenka’s regime.
