The Minsk City Prosecutor’s Office sent Uladzimir Kondrus’ case back for additional pre-trial investigation, the human rights centre Viasna reported in early September. The man has stopped hunger-striking.
On 14 June 2016, Uladzimir Kondrus, a resident of the town of Rudzensk, was put in jail Nr 1 in Minsk. As later confirmed by the Investigative Committee, he is facing charges under Part 2, Art. 293 of the Criminal Code (‘rioting’).
“I think the considering of the case has been postponed in the run-up of the parliamentary election so that international observers would have no grounf for stating that political prisoners have appeared in Belarus again. When the elections are over, the cases of Uladzimir Kondrus, activist Zmitser and blogger Eduard Palchys will be set in motion again,” Valyantsin Stefanovich, deputy chairman of HRC Viasna, believes.
The criminal case was opened following the events of 19 December 2010 in Minsk, when hundreds of people were detained and subjected to administrative arrest and prosecution as a result of the disproportionately violent dispersal of a peaceful demonstration in Independence Square. These included seven candidates running in the 2010 presidential election. As a result, 44 participants were sentenced to various punishments, including imprisonment. To date, all the convicts in this case have either completely served their sentences or have been released early from prison as a result of a pardon.
According to Belarusian human rights organizations, the demonstration of 19 December 2010 in Minsk was peaceful, while the protesters exercised their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression.
Protesting against his arrest, Uladzimir Kondrus went on hunger strike; his health has been ruined.
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Belarusians human rights defenders recognized Uladzimir Kondrus as a political prisoner. “The actions of Uladzimir Kondrus cannot be categorized under Art. 293 of the Criminal Code, while the statute of limitations of other articles of the Criminal Code, under which they could have been qualified, has already expired.” they say.
belsat.eu, following spring96.org
