Trial date for Yury Rubtsou set

The trial against political prisoner Yury Rubtsou will be held in the court of the Pruzhany district at 10:00 on May 27.

The case under article 415 of the Criminal Code (evasion of serving a term of punishment) will be heard by judge Mikalai Repikha. The political prisoner may face up to 3 years of imprisonment, Viasna human rights centre reports.

Yury Rubtsou is now on hunger strike in a temporary detention facility in Baranavichy.

The criminal case was initiated for violating conditions of serving a term under part 3 of article 47 of the Penal Code of the Republic of Belarus and violating the inner rules of an open-type correctional facility that oblige an inmate to work in accordance with the job offer issued by the administration. Rubtsou declined four job offers, which was interpreted as evasion of serving a term of punishment.

Yury Rubtsou refused to work due to low wages and demanded to give him a job with the country's average wage of $600. The political prisoner does not agree that hiring and firing procedures are violated in open-type correctional facilities.