29 members of special police troops are Mikita Lihavid’s victims

17:45 Victim Volkau, a member of special police troops, is being interrogated.

17:42 Bazhok has nothing on Lihavid, he does not know him.

Bazhok describes his injury: “They hit me in the back of my head and I felt dizzy”. According to the protocol of the investigation, he was hit in the back. The policeman says that he did not read the report and simply signed it. “It is just a procedure”, - he says.

Bazhok says the he saw and heard very little in the square.
17:30 Member of special police troops Yury Bazhok is being interrogated.

Skarahod says that 35 people tried to enter the House of the Government and that 2 or 3 of them had wooden sticks.

17:17 Victim Skarahod is being interrogated. He is a member of special police troops too. The interrogations of victims are becoming shorter.

16:33 Yury Maiseyeu is being interrogated. He is a member of special police troops.

Maiseyeu says that something was thrown from the crowd and hit him on the knee. He felt acute pain but managed to endure it. He saw reinforcements in the square. He did not see spades or ice-axes.

16:32 Ihar Zyankevich did not see armed demonstrators in the square. His interrogation was brief. He did not see Mikita Lihavid there and has nothing on him.

16:22 The third victim, Zyankevich, is being interrogated.
16:04 The lawyer has asked Kashtalyanau whether he saw armed people in the square and if he knows Lihavid. The answers to both questions were “no”.

Just like at the trial of Breus and Gaponov, Kashtalyanau said that he saw demonstrators using a fire extinguisher.

15:54 The lawyer has asked Kashtalyanau how many people tried to enter the House of the Government and were breaking windows. He paused for a while and said – 35 people.

15:51 Answering the lawyer’s question whether Kashtalyanau asked the demonstrators to leave the spot near the House of the Government, he replied: “Why did I have to? All the people on the threshold of the House of the Government were violating the law. We removed them from that place using physical force”.

15:22. Lihavid’s lawyer has started interrogating Kashtalyanau. She has warned him that she wanted to get clear and specific answers instead of his personal opinion.

15:09. Kashtalyanau who gave evidence at Breus and Gaponov’s trial is repeating his evidence. However, he has not used the term “disorderly crowd” now. He calls demonstrators “citizens”.

15:02. Kashtalyanau is about to give evidence. He is the deputy commander of the special police regiment.
14:55. Karavayeu says that he did not see Lihavid in the square. He has also noted that he did not see action participants using weapons.

14:45. The hearing has been resumed. The lawyer is interrogating Karavayeu.

13.00 Witness Victar Karavayeu is being interrogated. He says he was hit on the head in the square. He thinks that a metal object was used for it. He received a haematoma but does not know whether there were any traces of the hit left on his helmet. He does not know how to find it out either.

The lawyer asked to find out what instructions Karavayeu stuck to. The judge did not allow it at first but agreed to it after additional explanations. However, the policeman refused to tell who had given him orders. He managed to recall it only after a remark – the head of the police regiment, Colonel Alyaksandr Valyantsinavich Lukomski. The other members of special police troops started laughing at their colleague’s stubbornness - chaos started in the court room. The judge made a remark to all the 29 victims.

12.40 The accused says that he did not see any resistance to the police at the manifestation.  He has also said that he did not see any people who had weapons or dangerous objects in the square. On the contrary, he has recalled that the police prevented people from leaving and that it was impossible to leave the square because it was blocked by special police troops. He says that policemen were beating girls and guys.
Mikita Lihavid has also said that he was beaten during the detention.

The BelTA agency presented a cutting video of the civil activist’s interrogation on the day of the hearing. Lihavid describes what he saw and heard in the square on December 19.

12.15 Lihavid refutes that he hit policemen. He says that he only saw a policeman to lose his shield. Lihavid and some other participants of the action returned the shield to the policeman.
Lihavid claims that he did not try to do damage to the House of the Government or to get there; he was stuck between the crowd and the House of the Government. The guy has called the idea of the assault of the House of the Government absurd.


11.45 Mikita Lihavid is giving evidence. He says that he arrived in October Square at 7.50 p.m. He got to know about the action from mass media and from his acquaintances. He has informed that he decided to go there because he found out that a friend he had quarreled with would go there. M. Lihavid has informed that he was worried about her and that it was one of the reasons why he went to the square. However, he did not manage to find her there.

The guy has refused to tell the friend’s name to the judge. He has explained it by the fact that participants of the Square usually have problems at work and school and that he would not like to do harm to her.

The judge has refused to change his measure of restraint, informs “Nasha Niva”.

11.15 Rest.

 11.05 Mikita Lihavid’s lawyer has asked to change her client’s accusation. She thinks that the prosecution has not managed to prove that mass disorders did take place in Minsk. The lawyer has asked the judge to change M.Lihavid’s measure of restraint. She has also expressed the opinion that the hearing should be suspended until more evidence of her client’s guilt could be presented.

The advocate has also drawn the judge’s attention to M.Lihavid’s positive characteristics, his health condition (Mikita has problems with his eyes) and his age – he is 20.
The prosecutor and the victims did not agree with M.Lihavid’s lawyer. The judge has left the court room to take a decision.

 

10.50 The judge has refused to satisfy the lawyer’s appeal. All the 29 policemen will give evidence against M.Lihavid. The lawyer’s second appeal has also been declined.

The prosecutor has started his speech. He is repeating everything said by prosecutors at the previous trials of participants of the Square. He has mentioned mass disorders, gas mixture bottles, armed resistance to the police and the damage done to the House of the Government. The prosecutor is accusing M.Lihavid of breaking the door of the House of the Government, armed resistance to members of special police troops, hitting and booting the fence and participation in the mass disorders.
 
Mikita Lihavid has partially admitted his guilt – he has confirmed that he hit the wooden shields that protected the windows of the House of the Government.

The policemen were seen at Breus and Gaponov’s trial – the young people claimed that they had been beaten.
Having interrogated the defendant, the judge invited the victims. They stood up – all the 29. The lawyer disputed the fact that all the 29 policemen could be victims. Only 15 of them were mentioned in the mass disorders case before.
 
The prosecutor disagreed with the lawyer, however, the judge’s question whether they were victims divided the policemen – some of them did not want to admit that they were victims. But when the judge interrogated the policemen one by one, all of them agreed that they were victims again, reports “Nasha Niva”.