An unmanned raft carrying 6,000 packs of Belarusian-made cigarettes was pulled from the River Viliya by Lithuanian border guards in the early hours of Friday.
The makeshift raft was spotted by Belarusian border guards seven kilometers of the border in the Astravets district, Hrodna region, at around 8:20 p.m. the previous day, Alyaksandr Kolabaw, spokesman for the Smarhon Border Control Unit, told BelaPAN.
The border guards informed their Lithuanian colleagues about the raft and followed it to the border.
At 6 a.m. on Friday, Lithuania’s border guards reported to have pulled the raft from the river. A probe is underway to find the unsuccessful smuggler of the cigarettes, said Mr. Kolabaw.
A disabled woman in Minsk, who is on a lengthy hunger strike against the death sentence passed on Dzmitry Kanavalaw and Uladzislaw Kavalyow in the subway bombing case, announced on Friday that she would continue her protest.
Earlier in the day, Prosecutor General Alyaksandr Kanyuk said that Mr. Kanavalaw, found guilty of perpetrating the April 2011 deadly subway bomb attack, had accepted his death sentence as lawful and refused to ask Alyaksandr Lukashenka for clemency.
Svyatlana Chornaya, who began her hunger strike a few days after Supreme Court Judge Alyaksandr Fedartsow pronounced the judgment in the trial, told BelaPAN later in the day that she would carry on with her hunger strike.
“My protest is against the guilty verdict on Dzmitry Kanavalaw and Uladzislaw Kavalyow,” said the woman. “I believe that the alleged guilt of these two young men was not proved in court. Admitting guilt is not enough for being found guilty, as specified in Belarusian regulations.”
“I don’t know why he refused to apply for clemency, under what circumstances he did it and what prompted him to make the decision,” she said. “Moreover, there is Uladzislaw Kavalyow, too, and he drew up a pardon application. So, I won’t end my hunger strike.”
Commenting on her health condition, Ms. Chornaya said that she felt normal. “I drink lots of water. I try to drink only mineral water to prevent my bones from being destroyed. I have already become accustomed to feelings of hunger and they do not worry me any more.”
Messrs. Kanavalaw and Kavalyow were sentenced to death as a result of their trial held between September 15 and November 30, 2011. They were convicted of the two 2005 bomb explosions in Vitsyebsk, the bomb attack that occurred during an open-air Independence Day concert in Minsk in July 2008 and the April 11, 2011 subway bombing that killed 15 people and injured more than 200. Mr. Kanavalaw was found guilty of perpetrating them, while Mr. Kavalyow of acting as his accomplice, as well as of failure to report the crimes or their preparation. //BelaPAN
A disabled woman in Minsk, who is on a lengthy hunger strike against the death sentence passed on Dzmitry Kanavalaw and Uladzislaw Kavalyow in the subway bombing case, announced on Friday that she would continue her protest.
Earlier in the day, Prosecutor General Alyaksandr Kanyuk said that Mr. Kanavalaw, found guilty of perpetrating the April 2011 deadly subway bomb attack, had accepted his death sentence as lawful and refused to ask Alyaksandr Lukashenka for clemency.
Svyatlana Chornaya, who began her hunger strike a few days after Supreme Court Judge Alyaksandr Fedartsow pronounced the judgment in the trial, told BelaPAN later in the day that she would carry on with her hunger strike.
“My protest is against the guilty verdict on Dzmitry Kanavalaw and Uladzislaw Kavalyow,” said the woman. “I believe that the alleged guilt of these two young men was not proved in court. Admitting guilt is not enough for being found guilty, as specified in Belarusian regulations.”
“I don’t know why he refused to apply for clemency, under what circumstances he did it and what prompted him to make the decision,” she said. “Moreover, there is Uladzislaw Kavalyow, too, and he drew up a pardon application. So, I won’t end my hunger strike.”
Commenting on her health condition, Ms. Chornaya said that she felt normal. “I drink lots of water. I try to drink only mineral water to prevent my bones from being destroyed. I have already become accustomed to feelings of hunger and they do not worry me any more.”
Messrs. Kanavalaw and Kavalyow were sentenced to death as a result of their trial held between September 15 and November 30, 2011. They were convicted of the two 2005 bomb explosions in Vitsyebsk, the bomb attack that occurred during an open-air Independence Day concert in Minsk in July 2008 and the April 11, 2011 subway bombing that killed 15 people and injured more than 200. Mr. Kanavalaw was found guilty of perpetrating them, while Mr. Kavalyow of acting as his accomplice, as well as of failure to report the crimes or their preparation. //BelaPAN
Polish MPs have backed the nomination of convicted human rights defender Ales Byalyatski for the Nobel Peace Prize, Tatsyana Ravyaka, an associate of the imprisoned activist, told BelaPAN.
At a ceremony in Warsaw on January 27, Andrzej Halicki, a lawmaker who represents the party Civic Platform and chairs Poland's delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, displayed a statement issued by Polish MPs to support Mr. Byalyatski's nomination for the prestigious award. "We know that the statement has been signed by lawmakers from 27 member states of the Council of Europe," Ms. Ravyaka said.
The Polish MPs' statement is "very important and powerful support not only for Ales but also for the rest of Belarusian human rights defenders," Ms. Ravyaka said. "This is a recognition of the fact that Byalyatski is not a criminal but a human rights defender who is an authoritative figure across the world. And if he wins the prize, the situation with political prisoners will drastically change in Belarus. The world will be speaking loud about Belarus' political prisoners," she noted.
On November 24, 2011, a judge of the Pershamayski District Court in Minsk sentenced Mr. Byalyatski, the 49-year-old leader of a human rights group called Vyasna (Spring) and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, to four and a half years in prison on a charge of large-scale tax evasion.
The charge stemmed from information about Mr. Byalyatski's bank accounts abroad, which was provided by authorities in Lithuania and Poland. During his trial, Mr. Byalyatski insisted that the money transferred by various foundations to his bank accounts abroad had been intended to finance Vyasna's activities and therefore could not be viewed as his income.
Prominent Belarusian human rights activist Aleh Volchak was arrested by police in Minsk on Friday.
As Mr. Volchak, a former prosecutorial investigator, told BelaPAN over the phone, after he left home to go to a post office, a policeman came up to him, checked his ID and said that he was being arrested.
Mr. Volchak was taken to the Maskowski district police station where he was accused of disorderly conduct.
Mr. Volchak managed to say that he was being driven to the detention center on Akrestsina Street where he would apparently be held until his trial in the Maskowski District Court on Monday. //BelaPAN
27 January 2012
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