BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/12/2007

Belarusian Court Sentences Youth Activist To 18 Months In Prison And Another Orders Paper To Pay Damages To Belarusian Lawmaker

A district court in Mahilyou on December 20 sentenced Youth Front activist Artur Finkevich to 18 months in a correctional institution for violating the internal regulations of the correctional facility in which he was already serving a two-year term for spraying political graffiti, Belapan reported. Finkevich was arrested on January 30, 2006, and sentenced to "restricted freedom" in a correctional facility for "malicious hooliganism" in May 2006. In October 2007, authorities brought new charges against Finkevich, accusing him of misconduct and violating the internal regulations of the correctional facility. The prosecutor demanded a two-year term for Finkevich, claiming that after receiving two warnings Finkevich continued breaking the regulations with no mitigating circumstances. Finkevich himself partially admitted his guilt and asked the court to sentence him to six months in prison, the minimum possible penalty under article with which he was charged, and to take into consideration his difficult family situation and poor health as mitigating circumstances. If Finkevich had not faced new charges he would have been released 10 days ago. Between February 1 and May 10, 2006, he was held in a pretrial detention center -- each day spent in a jail by a person sentenced to restricted freedom is counted twice. AM

A district court in Minsk on December 20 ordered the publisher of the independent "Novy Chas" newspaper to pay 50 million rubles ($23,225) and journalist Alyaksandr Tamkovich to pay 1 million rubles in damages to Mikalay Charhinets, a lawmaker of the upper chamber of Belarusian legislature, Belapan reported. Charhinets, who heads the standing Committee on International Affairs and National Security in the Council of the Republic, accused "Novy Chas" of running a story on September 24 that insulted his honor and dignity. Charhinets initially demanded 500 million rubles from the publisher and 100 million rubles from the journalist, but revised his claims to 50 million and 5 million, respectively, after Tamkovich sent a letter to him expressing regret over the politician's reaction. Alyaksey Karol, editor in chief of "Novy Chas," described the suit as politically motivated and aimed at the closure of the newspaper. AM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/12/3-cee/cee-211207.asp