Human rights activists fined for demands of capital punishment abolition

The court of Leninski district of Minsk fined huma rights activists Ales Byalatski, Valyantsin Stefanovich, Iryna Toustsik and a journalist Syarhei Sys.

As informed by "Nasha Niva", every human rights activist was fined a half basic unit (17,500 Br).

During the trial Ales Byalatski, Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), made three applications. One of them was a demand for the trial to be held in Belarusian. Judge Nadzeja Navitskaya said that there are two state languages in Belarus, so everything would be in Russian. However, as noted by "Radio Svaboda", she tried to speak Belarusian.

We remind that the human rights activists were detained on March 23 in central Minsk in fornt of Lukashneka's administration. They held a picket against capital punishment in Belarus. They had special T-shirts with blood stains painted on them, and unfurled a poster "No to capital punishment!"

All the detained human rights activists and the journalist were take to the police department of Leninski district of Minsk.

After the reports were drawn up, the human rights activists were sent to prison in Akrestsi Street for a detention until the trial.