Belarus Animal Rights/Antifa Prisoner

Urgent ELP! Bulletin (11th May 2007)

ELP has just heard about the jailing of an Animal Rights/Antifa
activist in Belarus.

At the beginning of last month (April 2007) Zhenya Shimanskiy, a
vegetarian anti-fascist and animal
rights activist from Minsk was arrested for non payment of a $1400
fine imposed after he was found guilty of spray painting animal
rights slogans.  It is also alleged by the authorities that after the
fine was imposed on him he bricked the windows of a McDonalds in
Minsk.

Zhenya will face a court in early June for his non payment of his
fine and for the alleged bricking of the McDonalds.  His supporters
have told ELP he may face several years imprisonment for his alleged
crimes unless money is raised to pay his fine.

ELP notes that Belarus prisons DO NOT feed their prisoners and Zhenya
is in urgent need of money to buy his food just to survive in prison!

If you can help raise money for Zhenya please contact
punker@375crew.org with 'Money for Shiman' in the subject line.

Besides money, letters of support are also urgently needed -
apparently Belarussian authorities have decided that Zhenya is a
dangerous extremist and visits are not allowed even for close
relatives.

Send urgent letters of support to:

Evgeniy Dmitrievich Shimanskiy
Volodarskogo str. 2, room 32
220050 Minsk Belarus

Or if you read cyrillic fonts write to:

Áåëàðóñü ã.Ìèíñê 220050
óë. Âîëîäàðñêîãî 2, êàìåðà 32,
Øèìàíñêîìó Åâãåíèþ Äìèòðèåâè÷ó

Please Note: Zhenya only understands Belarussian and Russian, so in
case you do not speak either of these, send photos, drawings,
postcards and other nice stuff just to remind him he is not alone.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.  We must remind Zhenya he is not alone and
the international community has not forgotten him.

Also the Anarchist Black Cross in Minsk has photos of Zhenya and are
happy to pass them on to be published in papers which are not
distributed in Belarussia (this is important, the papers must not end
up in Belarus).  Due to the fact his photo must not be published in
Belarus the photos must not be posted onto the internet.

If you would like a photo e-mail punker@375crew.org

Finally, many thanks to the Russian Anarchist Black Cross for telling
ELP about Zhenya.

Solidarity without Boarders!