Belarusian activist Pavel Vinahradau jailed for 10 days over “toy protest”
On 22 January Belarusian opposition activist Pavel Vinahradau [from Russian transcription Pavel Vinogradov] was given a 10-day prison sentence for a “toy protest" in Minsk., similar to those seen recently in Russia.
On 10 February members of the Tell the Truth campaign brought teddy bears with placards to Independence Square. The placard held by one teddy (presumably one-eyed) reads “The cops ripped my eye out” and by another: “Where? Freedom of Speech”. The police arrived and removed the “criminal items”
Vinahradau has declared a hunger strike and says that he was simply looking at the teddies. A policeman claims that he saw Vinahradau committed the “crime”…
RTFEL reports that Vinahradau was not arrested on the day of the protest, but was detained only on February 21, ahead of the court hearing on February 22.
From reports at RFEL and Charter 97 (the photos are from the latter)
