On 28 December 2022, the ministry of justice annulled licenses of a number of lawyers, including Viktar Matskievich, who had defended anarchists Ihar Alinievich and Akikhira Gajeuski-Khanada. Earlier, on 1 December an extraordinary attestation of Viktar Matskievich took place. The certifying committee decided that the lawyer allegedly has insufficient qualification, and then the ministry ruled that Matskievich cannot perform his professional tasks. Viktar Matskievich worked as a lawyer for more than 20 years.
Dzmitry Dubouski’s appeal hearing was scheduled for 7 February. The hearing takes place in the Minsk city court, judge S. Khrypach. In November 2022 Dzmitry was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment. This time he was tried for participation in several direct actions which took place in 2008-2010. Taking into account his previous (2021) conviction in the case of ‘anarcho-partisans’, Dzmitry’s cumulative sentence is 20 years of imprisonment.
Appeal hearing of Krystsina Charankova was also scheduled for 7 February, while appeal hearing of Anastasia Kukhta – for 14 February. This monthly summary of news is illustrated by drawings which Anastasia made in imprisonment.
On 23 January, a half of Mikalai Dziadok’s term passed. In a letter to a friend he writes: “You know that it is conditional. Everything might change, the term might become shorter or longer, but still it’s certain boundary.” Mikola reads a lot, received a recent issue of Dziejasloŭ journal, leans Arabic and German languages. “Hold on and believe in better!” — writes Mikola.