7 days of arrest - a verdict against the activist of the Conservative Christian Party BPF Jan Derzhavtseva issued March 26 Pershamaiski district court judge Vitebsk Natalia Korablina. Party member punished under Article 23.34 of the Administrative Code ( violation of the order of organizing and holding mass events) for participating in a demonstration against the " electoral farce " near a polling station on March 22.

As evidence of the offense the judge used the 1- minute video posted on the Internet. The judge did not burden themselves with figuring out exactly who shot and edited this video, and is not troubled by the fact that on the roller assembly obvious traces. To view the video during the trial, in the meeting was adjourned for an hour : the file on the disk that was in the case file did not open. During the break, the judge Korablina produced somewhere other disk and writes to him was the reason for the punishment of a member of the CCP BPF.

Jan Dzyarzhautsau was detained the day before: he was taken to the court of a temporary detention facility, where he spent the night. Activist told the court that the policeman, who was an administrative offense, he said, he believes that there is no reason to put it in pre-trial detention center, and issued a subpoena on April 3 - but the order came from somewhere above, the process to be speeded up.

In court Jan Dzyarzhautsau admitted that indeed violated the decision of the Vitebsk City Council, according to which to get permission to hold mass actions and pickets from the local authorities, you must first enter into agreements with the police, community services and physicians that the conclusion of such agreements in every way shirk. Violation activist went deliberately, because in recent years many times he and other pro-democracy activists applied for pickets, and never got the authorization to conduct them.

"I was guided by the Constitution and international treaties to which the Republic of Belarus signed, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These instruments provide my right to freedom of expression, including through the picket, "- Jan Dzyarzhautsau said.

Nevertheless, he is not convinced judge Korablina. Apparently, she felt that the Vitebsk City Council decision number 881 of 10 July 2009 "On Mass Events in Vitebsk " and the Law "On Mass Events " have priority above the Constitution and international law.