BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

12/10/2007

Belarusian Authorities Continue To Detain Activists Ahead Of "European March"

Belarusian police on October 11 arrested more opposition activists ahead of the opposition European March for Freedom, scheduled to take place in Minsk on October 14, Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. Police apprehended Pavel Nazdra in Mazyr, Yury Bakur and Inha Abramava in Brest, Vasil Siliverst in Yelsk, and Nikita Sasim and Pavel Yukhnevich in Minsk. Police officers routinely charge detainees on the eve of major opposition protests with "petty hooliganism," which covers the use of obscene language or other unseemly behavior in public place. Bakur and Abramava on October 12 were jailed for 10 and five days, respectively, on charges of using obscenities in a public place. On October 11, a court in Hrodna fined Anzhelika Borys some $215 and jailed Ihar Bantser and Mikola Lemyanouski for 10 and five days, respectively, finding the three guilty of publicly using foul language (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 11, 2007). Borys and Bantser are activists of the officially unrecognized Union of Poles in Belarus. Meanwhile, Vasil Palyakou and Uladzimir Katsora, who were jailed for seven days each on charges of using obscene language in Homel earlier this week, have gone on a hunger strike in jail (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 10, 2007). JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/10/3-cee/cee-121007.asp

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