Verdict in “student case” announced

In Minsk, a verdict was announced for the defendants in the “student case”. There are 12 defendants in the case, most of them between 19 and 24 years old. They have been in pre-trial detention for more than seven months.

All defendants are charged with organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order (Part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code). According to the investigation team, the defendants developed a plan to engage students and university faculty and staff in protest activities.

Eleven people who didn’t plead guilty were sentenced to 2.5 years in a general regime penal colony. Hleb Fitzner, the only person who pleaded guilty, received two years in a penal colony. These are exactly the prison terms that the prosecution requested for the defendants in the case.