Political prisoner Maksim Yalkanau has been accused and found guilty of organizing group actions in Homiel and Rechytsa, grossly violating public order and associated with evident disobedience to the demands of public authorities (Part 1 Article 342 of the Criminal Code), Palesskaya Vyasna writes.
Last August 10th Maksim Yalkanau called his friends, his own brother, and his cousin to go to the center of Rechitsa to see if there were really clashes between the citizens and the government agencies in Belarus. In the city center, the young people did not see any disturbances and went to Homiel. But in the regional center, they were arrested by law enforcers.
Maksim Yalkanau, 29, was charged under part 1 of article 342 of the Criminal Code (“organization of group actions that grossly violate the public order and are associated with evident disobedience to the authorities’ demands”). The man pleaded guilty.
On June 18, Judge Syarhei Salouski found Maksim guilty of the violation and sentenced him to a year and a half of imprisonment in a minimum-security penal colony.
Maksim Yalkanau has been declared a political prisoner.
