Educational Institution Employee Detained In Minsk For White-Red-White Flag In Window

The woman was sentenced to 14 days of administrative arrest.

A Minsk resident, employee of an educational institution, has been detained in her flat and accused of hanging a white-red-white flag in the window, writes zerkalo.io. The court has placed her under administrative arrest, the ruling says.

According to the protocol under Part 1 of Article 24.23 of the CAO, on January 14 at 21.43, the Minsk resident "publicly demonstrated a white-red-white flag from the window of the house, which became visible to an unlimited number of people.

Thus, according to the police, the woman "held a mass event - picketing, which was not authorised by the Minsk City Executive Committee". The file contains the protocol of the inspection of the "window and flat," during which the flag was found.

At the trial, which was held for some reason a month later - on February 15, the Minsk resident pleaded guilty and said that she had hung the white-red-white flag on the window in her room from the inside.

The court found her guilty of unauthorised picketing and sentenced her to 14 days of administrative arrest.

It is not known whether the woman hung the flag herself. We know from the experience of political prisoners the cases when law enforcers, in order to have a reason to arrest the person they need and sentence him to days in jail, came to his home, hung a flag themselves, took a photo - and then it became the evidence in the administrative case. Such protocols can also be used in cases when people are already in Akrestsina, but the law enforcers want to keep them for another "term" and they organise new trials.