On December 14, Dzyarzhynsk district court passed a guilty verdict in the case of 40-year-old political prisoner Andrey Runtso, the human rights centre Viasna reports.
At first, Runtso was detained over placing a funeral wreath in front of a policeman’s house. Then he was charged with ‘violence or threat of violence against a police officer’ (Article 364 of the Criminal Code) and ‘threat to a judge or people’s accessor’ (Art. 389).
On Tuesday, judge Raman Krylovich sentenced Andrey Runtso to three years of imprisonment in a minimum security penal colony. In addition, the defendant will have to pay off ‘emotional distress’ damages to policeman Kalkouski (1,500 Belarusian rubles). The prosecution side was presented by Alyaksandr Kardzis.
Andrey Runtso worked as a loader, he is a father of two kids. He also has a third-degree disability. In his last plea, he apologised to the injured party and asked the court not to punish him severely.
As reported earlier, Baranavichy-based activist and Afghan war vet Uladzimir Hundar, who has a second-degree disability, got three years in jail for ‘threatening police’ in May 2021. Hundar does not have one foot. When he was being kept in the pre-trial detention centre, he was barred from taking his artificial limb there. According to the activist’s daughter, it was done on purpose to complicate her father’s staying behind bars.
On 9 August 2020, numerous protest rallies started throughout Belarus on the back of announcing the preliminary results of the 2020 presidential election; the major demands of Belarusians were Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s resignation; holding a free and fair election; releasing political prisoners; putting an end to police violence as well as bringing to justice those involved in battering and torturing peaceful demonstrators.
There are several deaths that are linked to the post-election protests. As of today, 929 persons have been recognised as political prisoners by the Belarusian human rights community. According to the Amnesty International organisation, the Belarusian authorities admitted receiving some 900 complaints of abuse by police in connection with the protests, but by the end of the year not a single criminal investigation had been opened, nor had any law enforcement officer been charged with respective violations. The country’s investigative authorities and law enforcement agencies has been apparently assisting the regime in prosecuting opponents and muzzling dissent.
