Court of Hrodna ignores Pushkin's appeal

On October 2, the court of Hrodna region heard the appeal of the artist, who earlier was tried in the Smarhon district court.

According to the decision of the court of Smarhon, artist Ales Pushkin was sentenced to 10 days in custody (5 days for organizing an unsanctioned picket an 5 days for disobeying police officers' orders) for a performance in honour of Belarusian patriot Rastirslau Lapitski, who had been killed by Belarusian NKVD. The artist didn't agree with the court verdict and filed an appeal to the regional court, Viasna human rights centre reports.

The appeal was heard by judge Vasily Stuk, who conducted the trial in Belarusian.

Ales Pushkin noted in this appeal that policemen from Smarhon violated the Law on Internal Affairs Bodies and the Law on Languages. He said his rights were violated, because he was not told why he had been detained. Policemen refused to speak Belarusian and the decision of court was made only in Russian at the trial. He also reported about procedural errors in police reports.

The court upheld the decision of the Smarhon court. Ales Pushkin is expected to be released on October 3.