Police allegedly give false evidence: Russian human rights defender sentenced to 3 days in jail
Belarusian court has sentenced Andrey Fedorkov, a human rights defender from Saint-Petersburg, and his friend Ivan Solovyov to three days in jail. Yaraslau Zhuryk, a resident of Minsk, will have to spend ten days under arrest.
On October, 25 plain-cloth riot policemen detained the trio at a bus stop in Sialitsky Street in Minsk. All of them were charged with petty crime and disobedience to policemen’s lawful demands. The case was being considered by judge Nastassia Asipchyk.
The policemen who were detaining the three men appeared in court as witnesses. According to them, Fedorkov, Solovyov and Zhuryk were crying aloud, waving their hands and using bad language while there were women and children at the bus stop.
The detainees pled not guilty and called the charges absurd.
Andrey Fedorkov and Ivan Soloviov arrived in Belarus on Saturday. They just wanted to visit the country that they had never been to before. In late afternoon they were standing at the bus stop.
“A violet minibus without any number plate drove up, plain-cloth people got out of it, came running and started to grab us, put armlocks on us. When we were handcuffed, they dragged us into the bus [and took to a police station],” Ivan Solovyov says.
According to Andrey Fedorkov and Ivan Solovyov, at the police station they were questioned by plain-cloth persons who did not introduce themselves. A lot of questions about Ukraine was asked: when they were there last, whether they have something to do with military actions in Ukraine, what they think of Putin’s policy towards Ukraine.
Andrey and Ivan have no idea why such questions were posed to them. Last time they visited Ukraine was in 2013, before the protests on Maidan which started in November.
Ivan Solovyov says he could never expect he would be treated in such a way. He is not going to returned to Belarus ever again.
“It is said that everything is ok in Belarus if one compares to Russia. But look – we have come here as tourists and were laid facedown. I have visited a lot of countries, but never seen anything like this. I watched film ‘Long Live Belarus!’, people told me, scared me, but I never believed. I still don’t want to believe. But I do see that outrage on justice is not uncommon here. This is very shameful especially for the reason that we are brotherly nations,” he says.
Ivan works as an engineer. A pregnant wife and 10-month daughter are waiting for him in Saint-Petersburg.
Andrey Fedorkov is known for his providing free legal aid to detained participants of opposition rallies in Russia. His wife was born in the Belarusian town of Mazyr.
The both are about to appeal against the judgement.
It is not the first time when police officers have given false evidence in courts hearing the cases of Belarusian opposition activists.
