Sentence to “Case of 14” participant reduced, though he was to be freed from penalty

One of the participants of the “Case of 14” Ales Straltsou has lodged a complaint with Minsk City Court against the verdict of Minsk Tsentralny Court of 15 June 2009, which reduced the activist’s sentence.

Ales Straltsou was sentenced to two years of imprisonment for ‘peace disturbance’ during the January 2008 entrepreneurs’ rally in Minsk. On June 15 2009 the sentence was reduced to 14 months of imprisonment and 15 days of correctional work.

This court ruling replaces the sentence he must have been freed from the punishment under the Law on Amnesty, the human rights centre “Viasna” informs.

In April 2008 the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk sentenced to two years of restriction of freedom in the Case of Fourteen. Like other persons involve din the case, he was charged with “peace disturbance” and “riotous conduct” which allegedly took place during the rally of entrepreneurs in January in Minsk.

On June 15 2009 the Tsentralny district court of Minsk substituted the part of the sentence he hadn’t managed to serve (1 year 2 months and 15 days) by correctional labour for the same period and holding back 15% of salary for the state.

In his complaint to the chairman of Minsk city court the activist stated that he finds the ruling of the court of Tsentralny district “illegal, groundless and subject to reverse.”

“I think that while passing the verdict the court ignored provisions of the Law on Amnesty in connection with the 65th Anniversary of the Liberation of Belarus from German-Nazi Invaders, which caused deprivation of my rights,” says A.Straltsou.

Under Part 3 of the Law on Amnesty persons are to be freed from punishment, if they were not mentioned in Articles 1 and 2 of the Law: convicted for intentional crimes and sentenced to restriction of freedom (Article 55 of the Criminal Code of Belarus), and persons punished by restriction of freedom for up to 6 years inclusively, if they have served a least one forth part of the term by the time of the Law’s coming into force.

“By the verdict of the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk of April 22, 2008 I was sentenced to 2 years of restriction of freedom without sending me to a correctional facility of open type. By the day of coming into force the Law on Amnesty I have served more than 8 months of the term, that means more than one forth part of the term. There are no reasons for not applying the amnesty to me,” the activist writes in the complaint.

It means that when the court studied the possibility to mitigate the punishment, Ales Straltsou already had a right to be amnestied. The court changed the punishment from which he was to be freed.

Besides, as a result, the court deprived the young man the right for Article 3 of the Law on Amnesty to be applied to him in the future. Persons that are serving the sentence in the form of correctional labour cannot be amnestied.

“Now when the question of amnestying me would be considered I would be able to expect only partial relaxation for 1 year, under Article 10 of the Law on Amnesty,” Straltsou said.

The young activist demands the higher instance to challenge the verdict of the Tsentralny district court of Minsk of June 15, 2009, to reverse it and suspend implementing the verdict until its protestation.

Belarusian human rights activists incessantly demand total amnesty of all persons involved in the Process of Fourteen and underline that for today this question is not being solved in fact. In May this year Amnesty International recognized 11 persons involved in the Process of Fourteen (those who are serving the term of restriction of freedom) prisoners of conscience. The international community many times called upon the Belarusian authorities to close these criminal cases and amnesty all these people. But these appeals are in fact ignored.