Oppositionist arrested for tearing off sticker “Lenin square” in metro

Kanstantsin Shytal, an activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, stood trial in the Pershamaiski district court of Minsk.

As Radio Racyja reports, Kanstantsin Shytal was detained on October 3 in metro for trying to tear off a sticker “Lenin square”.

He was detained by a militia officer and guarded to a militia station, where an administrative record against him was drawn up. On November 23, the Pershamaiski district court fined the BCD activist 1,050,000 rubles for “damage to public property”.

“The court decision was made on the ground of the records, testimony of a witness and the damaged poster. The judge offered to choose between a fine and detention. I was fined 30 basic units. It’s more than a million. So, the sum of the fine is 150-fold more than the ‘damage’ I made,” Shytal said after the trial.

Kanstantsin Shytal noted in an interview to “Belorusski Partyzan”: “I was detained unlawfully. Everything was right if not to take into account that Lenin square was renamed as Independence square long ago.”