Nine Articles Extremist, Court Decides in John Silver Case
On August 25, the Central district court of Minsk heard the case of Eduard Palchys, editor of the website 1863x.com who has been jailed for over half a year now under charges of inciting hatred.
Eduard Palchys was absent from the trial, he was represented by his lawyers Hanna Bakhtsina and Yauhen Maslau.
Victoryja Palchys, wife
Civil activists staged a picket near the court building in support of Palchys.
The trial was attended by politicians from the Belarusian People’s Front Party, and by representatives of the EU, Great Britain and Sweden.
The Investigative Committee motioned to make the case closed for the public because the results of today’s hearing could influence the ongoing criminal investigation against Palchys.
The judge upheld the motion, so the public only found out the results of the hearing a few hours later.
According to lawyer Hanna Bakhtsina, the judge’s decision was grounded on the results of examination of the informational products. The lawyer underlined that the judge did not have the materials from the website, only the results of the examination were presented. The lawyer added that she had seen the defendant a day before and he did not have any complaints regarding the conditions of the arrest.