23 demonstrators are sentenced to 15 days of imprisonment by Minsk courts

Minsk courts pronounced sentences to 23 participants of the entrepreneurs’ protest action that took place in Minsk on January 10. Almost all of them have been sentenced to 15 days of detention. They were punished for “hooliganism” and “participation in an unauthorized action”. A famous politician Anatol Lyabedzka and the leader of the movement of entrepreneurs Anatol Shumchanka are among them.

Tattsyana Tsishkevich was given the longest term – 20 days of detention. A human rights defender Valayntsin Stefanovich commented on it in his interview with ERB:

“Terms used to nullify shorter ones and people could not be detained for more than 15 days. Now they add up and the judge sentenced her to 20 days of imprisonment probably taking into account the fact that she had already been subjected to administrative responsibility many times”.

According to Stefanovіch, about 25 people have been imprisoned including activists who had been detained before the action started.