Reprisal in court: from 3 to 4 years in prison for peaceful demonstrators of December 19

Participants of a peaceful demonstration against the falsified elections on December 19, 2010, have been sentenced to 3 or 4 years in a medium security penal colony.

The Kastrychnitski district court of Minsk found Zmitser Drizd, Ales Kirkevich, Pavel Vinahradau, Andrei Pratasenya, and Uladzimir Khamichenka guilty of taking part in the so called mass disorders in Minsk on December 19, 2010, and sentenced them to 3 or 4 years in a medium security penal colony.

As an Interfax-Zapad correspondent reported from the courtroom, Kirkevich and Vinahradau were given 4 years in a medium security penal colony each, Drozd, Pratasenya, and Khamichenka were sentenced to 3 years in a medium security penal colony.

The state prosecutor demanded 4 years in a medium security penal colony for Vinahradau and Kirkevich, 3.5 years for Drozd and 3 years for Pratasenya and Khamichenka.

Besides, the state prosecutor asked to prescribe defendant Khamichenka (aka “headphone”) compulsory treatment of alcohol dependence in a place of imprisonment.