Paval Sevyarynets granted three-days leave from correctional facility

Paval Sevyarynets, who is serving a three-year "restricted freedom" and corrective labor sentence, has been granted a three-day leave of absence from the open-type facility.

The administration of the correctional institution in the village of Kuplin, Pruzhany district, Brest region, ordered Mr. Sevyarynets to return on April 6.

According to Mr. Sevyarynets, he will use the leave to visit his parents in Vitsyebsk and it will take half the time of the leave for him to travel there and back.

On May 16, 2011, Mr. Sevyarynets, who was candidate Vital Rymashewski`s campaign manager during the previous year’s presidential race, was convicted in connection with a post-election protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010. A district judge found him guilty of instigating disturbances and participating in them.

The 36-year-old Sevyarynets, who is widely believed to be a political prisoner, has five and a half months to serve of his sentence. In July 2012, he was denied parole.