Activist spends 3 days in jail, sentence not pronounced

Natallya Basalyha-Harachka spent 3 days in jail and the judge has not managed to pronounce a sentence to her, Radio Liberty reports. The civil activist and Kurapaty defender was detained at the entrance to Kiev Public Garden on March 24. A meeting and concert dated for Freedom Day were being held in the park. Basalyha-Harachka has gone on hunger strike, Zmitser Dashkevich reported earlier. She stood trial in Minsk Central District Court on March 27. The report about ‘petty hooliganism’ has been sent back to the police ‘for revision’.  

She was detained by policemen in plain clothes – Yury Aksyuta and Illya Shunevich, the activist said. “Natallya Basalyha-Harachka was being impertinent and ‘was imposing her presence’ on others,” the policeman said in court. However, the evidence given by the policemen did not correspond to the time of Natallya’s phone calls to the police. She called the police herself (the policemen had refused to speak Belarusian to her). The activist also recorded a video of the actions of ‘the people in plain clothes’ right before the detention.

She spent 3 days all alone in her cell, the woman said. The guards refused to call an ambulance for her when she had high blood pressure. She was only given pills. Basalyha-Harachka is going to document injuries.