BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

11/05/2007

Belarusian Prosecutors Refuse To Examine Oppositionist Detention

Prosecutors in Mahilyou, eastern Belarus, have refused to open a criminal investigation into the detention of opposition activist Krystsina Shatsikava in March, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported on May 11. On March 23, police officers forced Shatsikava into a car in downtown Mahilyou and took her to a mental hospital where she was held until March 26 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," March 29, 2007). Earlier this month Shatsikava received an official answer from prosecutors to her complaint about the incident. The prosecutors responded that both the police officers who detained her and the administration of the mental clinic in which she was kept acted within the framework of powers vested in them by laws on police and on psychiatric assistance. The reason for Shatsikava's forced hospitalization, the prosecutors said, was a "collective complaint" by residents of the house in which Shatsikava lives. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/05/3-cee/cee-110507.asp