Blogger fined over protest against battery plant in Brest
Blogger Aliaksandr Kabanau. Image: tut.by
A district court in Brest on 28 February found blogger Aliaksandr Kabanau guilty of having violated the procedures to organize a mass event repeatedly in the course of a year and awarded a BYN1225 fine, reports tut.by.
The activist was accused of making calls to take part in an unauthorized rally. A silent protest against the construction of a car battery plant took place in Brest on 25 February. Over 100 people attended the protest, according to the estimates of local rights defenders.
Many people came to the court house to attend the trial and support the blogger, with some even having to stand in the corridor as there was not enough space in the court room, human rights lawyer Raman Kislyak said.
Yet another blogger Siarhei Piatrukhin will also stand trial today in the administrative case on the same charges - calling for taking part in an unauthorized protest.
Kabanau and Piatrukhin were detained in the evening of 23 February in Brest. They spent the weekend in a pretrial detention center. The trial began on 26 February but was postponed to 28 February after the defendants had appealed for a defense lawyer.
