BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
14/07/2006
Belarus opposition leader sentenced to five years jail
Minsk - A Belarusian court Thursday sentenced leading opposition lawmaker Aleksander Kozulin to five years of hard labour.
The sentence by judge Aleksei Rybakov came after the court found Kozulin guilty of calling on crowds to break into a state prison to release political prisoners during anti-government demonstrations earlier this year.
The court also found Kozulin guilty of violating Belarus' strict assembly laws, which forbid almost all forms of public protest.
Belarusian opposition forces with Kozulin at their head took to the streets in early March, after authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko won a re-election internationally condemned as fixed.
The Lukashenko regime used force to break up the week-long protests. The demonstrations were however regarded as wholly peaceful.
The sitting judge had ordered the opposition leader and media removed from court earlier in the day. Kozulin was not in the court room at the time of his sentencing.
The former Minsk University rector in previous statements denied the March demonstrations had any intent to destabilise the Lukashenko regime.
The Belarusian judicial process closely resembles the judicial system of the former Soviet Union. Kozulin's defence attorney shortly before the sentencing described the proceeding as 'a farce.'
Source:
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