BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

13/10/2007

Belarus opposition activists arrested, jailed, harassed ahead of demo

(MINSK) - Several Belarus opposition activists have been detained, imprisoned and harassed ahead of a demonstration on Sunday in favour of European Union membership, opposition sources said.

In Minsk, activists Pavel Yukhnevich and Nikita Sasim were sentenced to five and seven days in jail for "rude talk in public places", court officials said.

According to Belarus People's Front leader Vintsuk Vyacherka, his party's office was blocked all day Friday by three unidentified officials who searched everyone leaving the building.

"They are most likely looking for leaflets and stickers calling for the march. Our activists in the regions are warned that a trip to Minsk Sunday is unacceptable," Vyacherka told AFP.

"Several young activists, who are studying in Poland after they were expelled from Belarus colleges, are being detained on the border, with border guards giving no reason for the detention. These activists were also heading for the protest," Vyacherka said.

The deputy chief of the party's Mogilev regional department, Zmiter Solovyov, was detained near his house Friday, on charge of public rudeness, and can face the court only Monday, Vyacherka said.

Several activists opposed to President Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian rule have been arrested in recent days ahead of the planned "European March" in Minsk in support of Belarus joining the European Union.

Sunday's protest will also call for more democratic freedoms and the release of political prisoners in Belarus, which Washington has branded the last dictatorship in Europe.

Source:

http://www.eubusiness.com/news_live/1192235522.68