Political prisoner Volha Klaskouskaya on trial in Brest for insulting policeman
Volha has already been sentenced to 2 years in prison for participation in the protests in 2020. She is being tried for a commentary that allegedly insulted a police officer. The trial takes place in the court of the Maskouski district of Brest.
In a Brest court, Volha is being tried for insulting a police officer Andrei Khvesyuk. This is not the first time that this policeman feels insulted. Uladzislau Yarshou was sentenced to 2 years of freedom restriction at home under Article 369 of the Criminal Code for insulting Khvesyuk, and Alyaksandr Kashpatau was sentenced to 2.5 years of similar punishment. And Khvesyuk was insulted again – and each time, he demanded 1,000 Belarusian rubles as compensation for moral harm, and the court satisfied this claim. It looks like the police officer has found an excellent additional source of income.
Volha has been behind bars for more than a year since October 2020. She was detained in Minsk and charged under Article 342 of the Criminal Code (“Organization of group actions that grossly violate public order and result in disruption of transport operations”). On December 22nd, the court sentenced her to two years in prison.
At the end of November 2021, Volha was transferred from Homiel women’s colony to Brest SIZO #7 to take part in the investigation of the new criminal case under Article 369 of the Criminal Code for comment in the social networks, in which she had allegedly insulted a policeman from Brest. The statement was posted even before her arrest. In a letter dated December 1st, Volha wrote that she was put on two preventive registers: as a person “prone to extremist and other destructive activities” and the one “prone to hostage-taking, attacks on the administration and hooliganism” in the detention center. Also, in mid-December 2021, Volha was sent for a psychiatric evaluation at the Navinki hospital. At the end of December, Volha was returned to detention center #7.
Ludzmila, Volha’s mother, and Andrei Sharenda said Volha’s prison health deteriorated.
belsat.eu
