Military Lawyer From Vitsebsk: I Was Glad To Touch White-Red-White Flag, It's Our Sanctity

Cheslau Salodki cut Lukashenka's judge down to size.

A pensioner was tried in Vitsebsk: "It's not a cloth, it's our sacred thing".

Cheslau Salodki, 66, a former military lawyer and a second-group disabled man, was accused of participating in an unsanctioned procession and picket with the WRW-flag in Vitsebsk.

- Were you carrying the white-red-white cloth in the company of citizens? - Judge Uladzimir Tsarykau asked Salodki, tut.by reports.

- It's not a cloth, it's a banner, our holy thing. But I did not carry it. I do not carry a banner in the city, now these days a person may be searched right on the street, - the retiree said. - I go for long walks every day, for my health. That day I saw people with flags and joined them. As I said before, the flag is sacred to me. I was walking and just holding on to it. It was a pleasure to touch the flag under which I had once taken the oath - like many civil servants in the early 1990s.

The Vitsebsk activist felt unwell after the arrest - after a day in the TDF he was taken to the hospital with a hypertensive crisis. Judge Uladzimir Tsarykau was considering the case for three hours and found the grandfather guilty under Part 1 Article 23.34 of the Administrative Code and fined him $12 basic units (348 rubles).