Dzyanis Urbanovich, the leader of the youth opposition organisation Young Front, stood trial in Maskouski district court of Minsk on Tuesday.
He was found guilty of petty hooliganism and disobedience of police orders. A fine of 1,147 Belarusian rubles was slapped on the activist.
Urbanovich was detained on March 25, Belarus’ unofficial Freedom Day, in Kurapaty, a Stalin-era mass executions site near Minsk. He showed up at the premises of the restaurant Let’s Go And Eat waving a white-red-white flag and shouting ‘Long live Belarus!’. On this very day, the police detained over a dozen persons who were about to celebrate the Freedom Day in Minsk.
The police officer who was giving evidence in court said that Urbanovich had failed to comply with his demands.
The Young Front leader has been repeatedly fined, jailed and attacked for his defending Kurapaty.
Since late May, the group of Belarusian activists is protesting against ‘dancing on the bones’, i.e.the activity of Let’s Go And Eat restaurant in the vicinity of the mass grave under the passive eye of the local authorities. According to the protesters, its construction and opening at the very place was illegal. Activists first asked the authorities to interfere with the situation, and then decided to act independently. They are trying not to let cars to the territory of the restaurant. The Minsk police have already drawn dozens of protocols against activists who had blocked the restaurant that opened at the site of the massacre.
