A resident of the Belarusian city of Vitebsk, Vladimir Punko, served seven days in a temporary detention center for drawing a white-red-white flag on his balcony. Tut.by reports about it on February 19.
The court found the drawing an unauthorized picket and found Punko guilty of violating the order of organizing or holding mass events.
According to Vladimir, he painted a flag on the balcony in August. In October, they drew up a protocol on violation of the improvement rules, but the local authorities did not see any illegal actions in the figure, the case was dropped after the statute of limitations had expired.
In January, the police came to Punko again. At first he was asked to simply paint over the flag, and when he refused, he was taken to the detention center, where the trial took place.
Earlier, a resident of Grodno was detained and fined for white pants with red stripes.
Since August, mass protests have continued in Belarus demanding the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko and the holding of new elections. The protesters go out into the street with white-red-white flags. This canvas was the state flag of the republic in 1991-1995. From March 1, the country introduces administrative responsibility for the use of white-red-white symbols.