Note from Anarchists Worldwide: Also sentenced with Mikita Yemelyanau was Ivan Komar. It should be noted that Ivan Komar cooperated with the police and gave evidence against Comrade Mikita. For this reason Anarchist Black Cross Belarus did not support Ivan Komar. Also, we have noticed that several variations of Comrade Mikita’s name have been used in various media reports of his case, so we have decided to stick with the version used by ABC Belarus as we feel it is the one most likely to be correct.

Heavy jail terms for two Belarusian anarchists

12.02.2020: On Wednesday, Belarusian anarchists Mikita Yemelyanau and Ivan Komar have been sentenced to seven years in prison each.

The trial kicked off on February, 6 in Savetski district court of Minsk. On February 11, public prosecutor Ihar Seneu asked the court to sentence them to seven years of imprisonment in a medium security penal colony. Today, when delivering the verdict, judge Alyaksandr Yakunchykhin has taken heed of the position of the persecution.

The two 19-year-olds were detained on October, 20. According to the investigators, in September, the men pelted the building of Minsk City Court with paint bulbs; a month later, the duo threw a Molotov cocktail at the detention facility in Valadarski street. In such a way, they allegedly expressed solidarity with Dmitry Polienko, another activist of the anarchist movement, who was standing trial in the autumn of 2019.

Yemelyanau and Komar were charged under Art. 341 of the Criminal Code (‘desecration of buildings and destruction of property;), Art. 295.3 (‘wrongful acts involving combustible materials’) and Art. 344 (‘intentional damage to historical and cultural values’).

In court, Komar did not plead guilty to the charges above, Yemelyanau admitted partial guilt. Ivan Komar also claims the law enforcers exerted pressure on him during the investigation.

(via Belsat)