Case of political prisoner Alyaksandr Barazenka submitted to court

A criminal case against activist of the civil campaign “European Belarus” Alyaksandr Barazenka, involved in the Case of 14, was submitted to the Tsentralny district court of Minsk.

The political prisoner has been kept in the Minsk detention facility in Valadarski Street since October 27. Judge Valery Yesman will conduct the trial of Alyaksandr Barazenka.

Alyaksandr Barazenka was arrested on October 27 in a building of the Investigative Committee of Preliminary Investigation of the city militia department of the Minsk city executive committee, where he had been called in for questioning. The oppositionist is one of the figures of the Process of 14, a criminal case, instigated on article 342 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus against participants of a peaceful rally of entrepreneurs, held in Minsk on January 10, 2008.

10 opposition activists, namely Alyaksei Bondar, Artsyom Dubski, Mikhail Kryvau, Mikhail Pashkevich, Alyaksandr Straltsou, Alyaksandr Charnyshou, Tatsyana Tishkevich, Mikhail Subach and Paval Vinahradau were sentenced to 2 years of restraint of liberty without sending them to penal facilities for participating in protest actions of entrepreneurs. Minor Maksim Dashuk got 1.5 year of restraint of liberty.

Alyaksandr Barazenka was in Poland during the investigation. He is a student of Wroclaw University. After first year student Alyaksandr had been expelled from Belarusian State University for a protest action against cancelling of social benefits, he applied for education Kastus Kalinouski Program.

It is an illustrative fact that the youth activist was arrested after the EU had suspended sanctions on high ranking Belarusian officials.