Political prisoner Alyaksandr Barazenka to stand trial December 8

Alyaksandr Barazenka, activist of the civil campaign “European Belarus”, is to stand trial in the Tsentralny district court of Minsk on Monday December 8.

The case of Alyaksandr Barazenka will be considered by judge Natallya Vaitsekhovich, who conducted trial over other oppositionists. The trial was supposed to be conducted by judge Valer Yesman, but Alyaksandr Lukashenka mentioned him among the officials involved in corruption at the session on corruption control on November 13, and Yesman must be dismissed in the nearest time.

Activist of the “European Belarus” civil campaign 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. It is remarkable that he was arrested just after the European Union lifted sanctions on high ranking Belarusian officials.