Minsk: Elderly engineer gets 15-day jail term for third time in row. He is behind viral memes about protest colours


Minsk-based engineer Anatol Shalkovich is likely to spend the total of 45 days behind bars.

The man has been recently sentenced to another 15-day term of administrative arrest, Mediazona reports with reference to his family.

Anatol Shalkovich was detained on November 11, on his 65th birthday. It is still unknown under what article he was charged. However, according to the Interior Ministry, he ‘was sewing white-red-white flags at home and placing them on the trees’.

Over the past year, pro-Lukashenka police forces have developed a habit to make arrestees appear in videos, repent on camera and tell about their ‘violations’.

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A police-made video featuring Anatol unexpectedly turned into a mild meme: the man explained with his natural sense of humour that he liked the combination of white and red (i.e. colours of Belarusian protest), as he likes tomatoes with sour cream, and his wife is a redhead, which is also white and red.

Anatol Shalkovich’s words in the so called repentant video triggered an online flash mob: Belarusians used tomatoes and sour cream in their posts, expressing their solidarity with political prisoners and protesting against the Lukashenka regime.

belsat.eu

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