Likhavid sentenced to 3,5 years of imprisonment

16:05 Darya Lipkina has said it is a very complicated case and urged to consider Mikita Likhavid not guilty.

Mikita Likhavid confirmed everything his lawyer has said, in his final address.

The sentence will be announced not earlier than at 6 p.m.  The human rights defenders are pessimistic about it – they think Mikita will be imprisoned for 3 years.

 
15:50 The lawyer has reminded the court that all the casualties interrogated during the trial claimed they had not seen the accused in the Square and had not witnessed any violations committed by him.

15:03 Likhavid’s lawyer Darya Lipkina starts her speech. She has pointed out several mistakes which the public prosecutor made in his speech to her opinion. Lipkina disagrees that the facts of damaging the House of Government and armed resistance to the police have been proved. She has also noted that the case of mass disturbances is the unique one for the contemporary history. She insists that the very fact of mass disturbances on December 19 in Minsk has never been confirmed as, according to the Criminal Code, mass disturbances are a combination of massacres, arsons, armed resistance to the police, violence against person and property demolishing. The lawyer thinks there was not such a combination in the Independence Square. She also thinks that the public prosecution failed to prove that Mikita Likhavid damaged the House of government’s property – only the moment when Mikita was hitting the wooden shields which protected the window apertures was recorded.

14:59 The public prosecutor thinks that the evidence given by the casualties and Mikita Likhavid himself allows to consider him guilty. He asks to punish Mikita Likhavid with 4 years of imprisonment in the high security correctional institution.

14:52 Public prosecutor Anton Zaharouski (he worked at Vasil Parfiankou’s trial as well) is speaking. He considers that Mikita Likhavid took part in the mass disturbances, and was a part of the “disorderly crowd”. He also claims that Likhavid resisted to policemen, broke the doors of the House of Government, broke windows, and seized the shield from a riot policeman.

The state public prosecutor thinks that the testimonies of all injured riot policemen can be combined together as they prove that the demonstrators actively resisted and tried to break the police chain.

13:45 A break has been announced till 14.45. Speeches of the public prosecutor, the lawyer, and possible the judge’s verdict will take place after the break.

13:06 Hulak has told that he heard appeals to come up to the House of Government, but no one urged to get inside. He claims that the candidates were holding speeches near the monument to Lenin, when he heard the sound of breaking glass.

12:54 Next witness – Aleh Hulak, the head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee. He says he doesn’t know Mikita Likhavid. The lawyer asks him questions about the Square events. Hulak says he witnessed all the key events on December 19. He explains his presence there by the fact that the Belarusian Helsinki Committee conducts monitoring of human rights violations, including those at mass events.

Hulak says he was going along the Ave with the demonstrators. He says he saw no objects in their hands, no aggressive people in the crowd. Aleh Hulak also says that traffic policemen blocked the side entrances to the Ave, but an ambulance car could go along the Ave with no obstacles – the demonstrators let it go.

Hulak says that he arrives at Kastrychnitskaya Square at about 19.30 and saw approximately 5 thousand people there. He was surprised that the skating rink was unusually big and the music was playing loudly.

12:45 Next witness – Likhavid’s former teacher Liudmila Shepeleva. She says that Mikita never had conflicts with his classmates, was active at school, and always defended his views.

12:36 The witness of defense Mr. Litvinau, Likhavid’s friend, is being interrogated. Vadzim Litvinau speaks positively about the accused, claiming they’ve known each other for six years.

12:25 The witness of defense Ihar Dudarau – a friend of the Likhavids – is being interrogated. He says he has known Mikita since he was born – he has a son of the same age as Mikita. He saw his son in Mikita’s company often, and he was glad about it as he trusted Likhavid. Dudarau has told the judge that Mikita is not a criminal, and that everyone has a right to speak up and declare one’s convictions. He also says he thinks that the time spent in the pre-trial detention center is enough to analyze one’s actions.

12:16 Next witness of defense – Natallia Lychkouskaya, a neighbor, a family friend, she has known Mikita for 20 years. She says he is a good person with strong moral principles. She claims she has never seen him drinking any alcohol, even beer, at the parties.

12:12 The lawyer asks Milinkevich for how long he has known Mikita Likhavid. Milinkevich’s testimony attracted the riot policemen’s attention when he said theat the country needed more people like Mikita Likkhavid – disciplined, responsible and well-brought. Milinkevich has also said that it is not like Mikita Likhavid to act in an aggressive manner, as for emotions, everyone can show them from time to time.

The lawyer has stressed that the movement “For Freedom” is officially registered in Belarus, during the interrogation.

Milinkevich’s interrogation is over, the judge and the casualties have no additional questions.

12:10 Milinkevich gives testimony in Mikita Likhavid’s defense.

12.05 The first witness of defense – Aliaksandr Tsitsiankou – is being interrogated. He is the head of the logistics department in a firm where Mikita Likhavid used to work. He tells about the accused, claiming that he has proved a good employee and a good person for a year and a half which he spent in the firm.  

11.55 The lawyer Lipkina has turned the judge’s attention to the fact that the policemen did not interfere with the glass-breaking process – they appeared at the site only when everything was over. She has also noted that the accused Mikita Likhavid looks bewildered in the video and conducts no actions.

The lawyer claims that not a single fact of using physical force against the riot policemen was reflected in the video-record. She filed an appeal for demonstration of another video-record, made by the casualty Saroka.

11.50 Video-demonstration is over. The lawyer Darya Lipkina claims that the fact of mass disturbances was not reflected in this video, within the whole 33 minutes. She says there are no close-ups in the video, and it only proves the facts of administrative offenses. She also claims that the threats to use physical force against the demonstrators, declared by the policemen through the megaphone, were based on nothing.

11.35 Video-record of breaking glass lasted for more than 10 minutes. 

11.25 After Sannikau's speech the video-record proceeded to breaking the glass in the House of Government' windows. The record is not professional - the quality is poor and the picture moves from side to side all the time. 

11.21 The video-record which is being demonstrated in the court contains many speeches of Andrej Sannikau. Other candidates are not there, due to some reasons. The camera man had chosen the moments where Sannikau spoke very emotionally.

11.12 Reading of the case materials is over. The video-record is to be demonstrated now. The judge Natallia Pykina does it with the help of a small laptop - not a TV, therefore, the audience in the court hall sees almost nothing. The video is demonstrated with a sound, but it is very quiet and it's difficult to hear something distinctively from the hall. Only the cries "Long Live Belarus!" and voices of Sannikau and Statkevich are heard. 

10.45 The lawyer turned the judge Natallia Pykina's attention to another discrepancy. The point is, Mikita Likhavid is accused of damaging the House of Government, including damaging of carpets which have been allegedly spoiled by the demonstrators. However, there is not a word about this in the case materials, read by the public prosecutor. 

10.25 The lawyer Darya Lipkina has informed that Mikita Likhavid's parents are ready to cover the damage caused by their son. 

The public prosecutor is reading Mikita Likhavid's characteristics. Mikita is characterized positively, it is stated that he is from a one-parent family, lives together with his mother and grandmother. Aliaksandr Milinkevich has signed a characteristic letter on behalf of the movement "For Freedom!".

10.23 According to the public prosecutor, a collective appeal of the BPF party on changing the restraint has been attached to the case of Mikita Likhavid.

10.10 Case materials enlisting injuries of the "victims"-policemen are being read out. The accusation is based on the information provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs' hospital, as the casualties refused to undergo forensic tests.

10.00 Trial has been resumed.

A 20-year-old youngster is accused of participation in mass disturbances, damaging the House of Government, and armed resistance to the police.

Let us remind you, the activist of the movement "For Freedom" Mikita Likhavid was detained on December 19 in the Independence Square and convicted to 15 days of detention in the Zhodzina pre-trial detention center. However, the administrative detention resolution was abolished on January 23 and Mikita became an accused in the mass disturbances criminal case. He was transferred to the Valadarski street detention center in Minsk from Zhodzina.