Hantsavichy District Resident Sentenced To 10 Days Of Arrest For Sticker With 'Pahonia'

The law enforcers found the sticker in a wardrobe in a book about Jesus.

A resident of Hantsavichy district was sentenced to 10 days of arrest for a sticker with "Pahonia" in a book about Jesus, lying in the wardrobe, writes the MAYDAY.TEAM telegram channel.

On October 11, 2023, the private house of a resident of the agrarian town of Liusina, Uladzimir Rylko, was searched. During the search, the law enforcers found 6 old stickers in the book "Jesus in His Time" by Henri Daniel-Rops, which was in the cupboard in the children's room. Five of them showed a red wing with the inscription "Freedom", another one - "Pahonia". It was to the latter that the claims of the police arose.

During the trial the man explained that he had had these stickers since 2005, when they were thrown into his mailbox. After that, children played with them for some time, then they got into the book and were forgotten.

The chairperson of the Hantsavichy district court, Aksana Zotkina, who conducted the trial, was not satisfied with such an explanation. In her opinion, Rylko committed an offence under part 2 of Article 19.11 of the Administrative Code (Distribution of extremist materials).

According to the ruling, the sticker with "Pahonia" in the book about Jesus in the wardrobe of a private house is "storage in a public place in a book accessible to an unlimited number of people of a self-adhesive sticker with the image of a rider on a horse with a sword and shield in his hands, included in the national list of extremist materials".

As a result of the hearing, the man was sentenced to 10 days of arrest.