MINSK -- A Minsk city court has upheld the convictions of two Belarusian activists sentenced on charges of "hooliganism" ahead of December's presidential election, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.
Zmitser Dashkevich, the leader of the organization Youth Front, and Youth Front activist Eduard Lobau were sentenced on March 24 to two and four years in jail, respectively, after being found guilty of assaulting two people in Minsk on December 18, one day before the election.
Youth Front activists say the case is politically motivated.
Youth Front activist Nasta Palazhanka told RFE/RL that Lobau and Dashkevich will appeal the convictions to a higher court. She said the detention center management transferred Dashkevich to a cell with more than 40 inmates after he refused earlier this month to sign a written request to send him to a labor camp.
Lobau is serving his four-year term in a maximum security labor camp in the southwestern town of Ivatsevichy.
Read more in Belarusian here
Zmitser Dashkevich, the leader of the organization Youth Front, and Youth Front activist Eduard Lobau were sentenced on March 24 to two and four years in jail, respectively, after being found guilty of assaulting two people in Minsk on December 18, one day before the election.
Youth Front activists say the case is politically motivated.
Youth Front activist Nasta Palazhanka told RFE/RL that Lobau and Dashkevich will appeal the convictions to a higher court. She said the detention center management transferred Dashkevich to a cell with more than 40 inmates after he refused earlier this month to sign a written request to send him to a labor camp.
Lobau is serving his four-year term in a maximum security labor camp in the southwestern town of Ivatsevichy.
Read more in Belarusian here