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Belarusian Court Convicts Another Opposition Activist

30 March 2011 04:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A Belarusian court has sentenced an opposition activist to three-and-a-half years in a maximum security prison on charges of taking part in December’s post-election violence, APA reports quoting voanews.com website.
Nikita Likhavid’s mother said she will appeal the conviction.
Likhavid was found guilty even after more than 20 policemen testified that they do not remember seeing him among the rioters.
Amnesty International says he is the third opposition figure to be sentenced to prison this week in Belarus. The rights group demands Likhavid and the other activists be immediately and unconditionally freed.
Amnesty calls them prisoners of conscience jailed for the peaceful expression of their views.
Hundreds of opposition supporters, including a number of presidential candidates, were arrested or beaten during a protest against the December 19 election.
President Alexander Lukashenko won a fourth term in what the opposition and European monitors say was a flawed vote.