Mikalai Ulasevich court’s marathon

Today, on 29 January, an appeal of a civic activist Mikalai Ulasevich was examined in the regional court.

The activist appeal to the resolution of the Astravets district’s court, which in nine rounds of court’s proceedings found him guilty of an administrative crime and fired for 40 basic units, the human rights center Viasna reports.

We would remind that Mikalai Ulasevich was detained during the latest electoral campaign two days before the election, on 21 September, and accused of disseminating allegedly illegal agitation materials. In some time the accusation was changed for “insubordination to policemen”.

Ulasevich’s complaint about the illegal actions of public agents, which was supposed to be examined in the same joint administrative process was in fact ignored and was not considered at all. Even despite the fact that Astravets district’s court officially established that there were 6 violations of the legislation on the part of policemen and officials, those were not given a legal definition.

Mikalai Ulasevich together with his lawyer made a motion today aiming to restore the term for an appeal, since the activist could not pay the legal costs in due time. The judge of the region’s court Uladzimir Yaukhuta finally satisfied the motion and then the processing of the appeal started. At first, Mikalai Ulasevich set forth the essence of him complaint, and then the lawyer added a number of convincing juridical arguments. However, the judge kept the decision of the district court valid after a brake, according to the practice, set for such appeals.

Mikalai Ulasevich considers the verdict to be political prosecution, the revenge of the local authorities for the active civic position. Now the activist firmly intends to dispute the court’s resolution with a higher authority.