Main Department of Internal Affairs of Minsk City Executive Committee filed new charges against ex-presidential candidates Vladimir Niakliaeu and Vital Rymasheuski on Wednesday, March 30. Now opposition politicians are no longer defendants under the article "riots," which entitled 15 years of imprisonment.
«Niakliaeu V.P., Feduta A., Vozniak S.V., Dmitriev A.V., Rymasheuski V.A. and Polazhenko A.V. are filed with new charges under Article 342 of the Criminal Penal Code of the Republic of Belarus («Organization and preparation activities, that breach public order, or active participation in them»), informed the Belarusian Interior Ministry.
As explained in the Ministry, accusation was brought against the opposition representatives in the light of evidence, received during the preliminary investigation, including documentary material, detailed and consistent testimony of the accused in the events, occurred on December 19, 2010 in Minsk.
Thus, the investigators determined that «with foreign support and funding,» these individuals had «attracted citizens of Belarus to «participation in illegal mass actions, grossly violating public order, with the aim to create an artificial excuse for not recognizing the results of presidential elections in the Republic of Belarus by the states of the European Union, USA and Russian Federation with their subsequent introduction of economic and political sanctions as a way to pressure the official authority in our country.»
«Qualification of defendants’ action has been finally determined and in the coming days they will be presented with the criminal materials in presence of their defense, which will be further submitted to the court through the prosecuting authorities,» told in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
As Telegraf previously reported, March 29, Investigation Department of preliminary investigation of Minsk police submitted criminal cases against former presidential candidates Nikolai Statkevich and Dmitri Uss, charged under Part 1 Article 293 of the Criminal Code of Belarus («Riots») to the court through the Minsk prosecutor’s office.
