Lawyer denied meeting with jailed activist

Pavel Sapelka, a lawyer for young opposition activist Alyaksandr Barazenka, was denied a meeting with his jailed client on November 18.   The formal grounds for the denial were the lack of a permit from Valery Yesman, a judge of Minsk’s Tsentralny District Court who is to hear the case.
Sapelka said on Wednesday that he would soon visit the judge to obtain the required permit, BelaPAN reported.
Barazenka is facing a charge of “active participation in group actions grossly disturbing the public peace” under Part 1 of the Criminal Code’s Article 342 in connection with the demonstration, which was staged in downtown Minsk in January in protest against the government’s crackdown on small business owners.
He has reportedly been holding a hunger strike for several days.