Musician Dzmitry Shymanski gets three years of restriction of liberty. He played bagpipes during protests


On Friday, Zavodzki district court of Minsk completed hearing the case of political prisoner and musician Dzmitry Shymanski, the human rights centre Viasna reports. He was arrested on 2 August 2021 along with the members of the Irdorath musical band.

Dzmitry Shymanski (C).
Photo: Belsat

The man was charged under Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code (‘organisation and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, as well as training or otherwise preparing persons to participate in such actions’).

According to the prosecution’s version, on 16 August 2020, Dzmitry Shymanski, together with Irdorath musicians Pyotr Marchanka, Yuliya Yunitskaya (Marchanka), Nadzeya Kalach, Uladzimir Kalach, Anton Shnyp and ‘other unidentified persons’, arrived at Lenin Street, where he was ‘moving in a crowd, publicly chanted slogans, blocked the roadway and refused to leave it, clapped his hands loudly, repeatedly refused to comply with the lawful demands of police officers, deliberately interfered with the movement of public transport and the work of enterprises’, which is a crime under Part 1 of Art. 342 of the Criminal Code.

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The prosecutors believe that Dzmitry Shymanski agreed up on jointly committing a crime under Part 2 of Art. 342 with the above mentioned persons, as he ‘played musical instruments together with other musicians and performed a musical composition which was similar to the song Peremen! (Change!)’.

In fact, it seems that Shymanski’s only ‘fault’ was playing the bagpipes during the largest-ever protest march in Minsk.

Dzmitry Shymanski was found guilty under Part 1 of the Art. 342. Judge Aleh Kalyada took heed of the public prosecutor’s demand and sentenced Shymanski to three years of restriction of liberty in an open-type correction facility; he is to be sent there soon. So far, the musician was released in the courtroom.

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