In court Sannikov told about regime’s provocation and his beating (Video)

• 27.04.2011, 10:12

The unfair trial over the Belarus’ presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov started on Aril 27 in the court of Partyzanski district of Minsk.

According to independent observers and human rights activists, Sannikov was the candidate who was undeniably winning by a wide margin at the ballot stations where electoral fraud had been prevented.

According to independent observers, for this reason the charges against him have not been mitigated, and the leader of the civil campaign “European Belarus” is charged under the harsh Article 293 of the Criminal Code: organizing the so-called mass riots. He faces up to 15 years of imprisonment.

The oppositional leader is kept in the KGB remand prison since December 19, 2010. His state of health is alarming. Just before the arrest he was brutally beaten up and injured by riot policemen.

Together with Sannikov’s case, cases of young activists Illya Vasilevich, Aleh Hnedchyk, Fiodar Mirzayanau, Uladzimir Yaromenak, were examined by the court of Partyzanski district of Minsk. During the trial they were placed into the cage in the courtroom together with the presidential candidate.

During the trial Andrei Sannikov stressed that the rally on December 19, 2010 was totally peaceful. Belarusians were protesting against rigging the presidential election results. Under the real results of the election, a second round was to be held.

In actual fact, the presidential candidates, including Sannikov, called upon the authorities to start negotiations about the necessity and holding the runoff election. Dozens thousands people on Kastrychnitskaya (October) Square voted in favour of that.

People gathered in Independence Square as the House of Government is situated there, and holding negotiations there would be logical. Besides, there was no possibility to address the people via sound-amplifying equipment, and information was obtained that an attack of riot policemen against people on Kastrychnitskaya Square was expected in a little while.

Sannikov stated that a provocation with breaking window glasses in the House of Government had been orchestrated on Independence Square. He urged to stop violence, while policemen were not interdicting the provocation, but was videoing it.

Then beating of people on the square started. Thousands of riot policemen ganged up on the peacefully standing citizens, started to beat them and arrest many of them. Sannikov was ruthlessly beaten as well.

“I was standing not far from the line of riot policemen and I was hit on my leg by some heavy object, my leg was seriously injured. I received a blow on the head by a truncheon. In a second I fell unconscious. I know that my wife and my driver started to shield me by their bodies, otherwise the situation would be worse.

When I regained consciousness, I stood up with the help of my wife and my friend Leanid, they offered to take me to a hospital. I agreed.

An acquaintance of mine, a journalist, was passing by not far from that place, he offered me to give a lift. We got into his car and started. On Victory Square a traffic police car moved across and stopped us, a door from my side was opened. I tried to explain that I had been seriously injured. But I was stricken fair in the face, and then there were several kicks in my body, and blows with boots in my arms. Later we were taken to Akrestsin Street remand prison, and I was taken to a medical station there. Doctors said that I had been seriously injured, and I was to be hospitalized. I was taken to the KGB remand prison instead of a hospital,” Sannikov told.

Andrei Sannikov pleads not guilty. He has stated that the case is politically motivated apparently, and he called upon judges to act in accordance with the law and international standards.

The young activists, who stood trial together with Sannikov, also stressed during the hearings that they had not committed acts of violence during the rally on December 19. Besides, they told about pressurizing by the KGB investigators while they were in prison. They were forced to testify that they had allegedly broken the doors of the House of Government after the presidential candidates’ appeals, and that they were paid money for coming to the square to protest.

The hearings in the case of Sannikov is to be continued on April 28, 2011 at 10 a.m.