Brest: Afghan war veteran with disability gets three years in jail for 'threatening police'
Baranavichy-based activist Uladzimir Hundar, who has second-degree disability, was detained at the end of 2020 as part of the so-called Autukhovich case. But later, the man appeared before Brest regional court for allegedly threatening police officers.
The trial was held behind the closed doors; the defendant’s relatives and friends were allowed to be present only when the verdict was being announced.
At first, Uladzimir Hundar, a 60-year-old local lore specialist and a Afghan war veteran, was reported to be charged under Art. 289 of the Criminal Code (‘act of Terrorism’). However, he has been tried for ‘violence or threat of violence against an official performing their duties or against another person performing a civil duty’ (Article 366); ‘call for actions to harm the national interest’ (Art. 361 ) and ‘violence or threat of violence against a police officer’ (Art. 364).
According to the prosecution’s version, Hundar prevented the security officers from working and dropped threats when they were searching his place. The man pleaded not guilty. On May 20, judge Syarhei Berazyuk sentenced him to three years in a minimum security penal colony. Upon hearing out the verdict, he managed to read a patriotic poem and chant: ‘Belarus will be free!’
Uladzimir 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.
belsat.eu
