Minsk: 1.5-year period of supervised release for 2010 post-election protester (UPD)
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Uladzimir Kondrus has been sentenced to compulsory treatment and 1.5 years of supervised release without being sent to a detention centre.
The trial of the last defendant in Ploshcha-2010 case, was resumed on December 26 in Maskouski district in Minsk.
An escort officer told judge Svyatlana Bandarenka that Kondrus flatly refused to enter the courtroom. As a result, the judge expelled him from the hall in absentia and continued the trial.
The man was arrested on June 14 on charges of ‘participation in mass disorders’ on December 19, 2010 in Independence Square (‘Ploshcha’). In prison, Kondrus went on a hunger strike and was within an inch of death. During the trial in November, he attempted to cut his wrists in court.
He was subjected to a complex psychological and psychiatric examination, and its results have been revealed in court today. Kondrus suffers from a kind of schizoid personality disorder, the assessment report says.
“[He displays] the personality’s disharmony, protesting reaction, inability to maintain long-term contacts with people, increased introspection, heightened awareness of his rights. But he has a good memory. His hunger-striking and refusal to enter the courtroom was a protest reaction. He may be in the court. But due to a breach in the emotional sphere he misinterprets the behavior of other people. He needs care and treatment.”
Although the prosecutor demanded compulsory treatment and three years of supervised release for Kondrus, the judge decided to reduce the term to 1.5 years.
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In 2011, 49 people were sentenced in the case, including former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich who was the last political prisoner pardoned by president Alyaksandr Lukashenka and released on August 22, 2015. For nearly six years, the security services were not interested in Kondrus.
All major Belarusian human rights organizations issued a special statement demanding immediate release of the Square 2010 participant. They called the case against him a politically motivated one and called Kondrus political prisoner.
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