Blogger Proves Innocence in Court
Blogger Raman Pratasevich cleared off police’s charges thanks to university: he proved he had been sitting an exam while the police allegedly saw him at a kind of an unsanctioned mass event in Kurapaty on February 25.
The hearing started on April 10. Raman Pratasevich was charged with participation in an unsanctioned event at the construction site in Kurapaty (it should be reminded that the protests at Kurapaty, the place of mass burials of victims of Soviet repressions, were successful – the developer company gave up with its plans to build a business center there; however, civil activists who stood on a picker there are being prosecuted now).
According to the charges, the student was an active participant of the unlawful picket on the construction site at Mirashnichenka str., 49 at 10 am on February 25. The blogger brought a notice from the dean’s office that he was sitting an exam on that day from 10 am to 12 am. Judge Dzmitry Tsykal found the official paper insufficient and summoned the examiners. Today they confirmed this information in court. The judge declared Raman Pratasevich non-guilty and closed the administrative case.
Raman Pratasevich had served a 10 days’ arrest after detention on March 26 close to Kastrychnitskaya Square in Minsk.