BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/01/2007

Police detain Belarusian opposition leader twice in one day, spokesman says

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: The leader of Belarus' beleaguered opposition, Alexander Milinkevich, was detained twice by police on Saturday, his spokesman said.

Milinkevich, the keystone of an unprecedented wave of protests last year against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, was detained in the morning on suspicion of drunken driving while traveling to meet with voters in the run-up to this month's local and regional elections, spokesman Pavel Mazheiku told The Associated Press

He was released after found to be not intoxicated, but several hours later was detained on suspicion of being involved in a traffic accident, Mazheiku said. Milinkevich remained in custody Saturday afternoon, the spokesman said.

Police declined to comment on the claim.

Milinkevich has been detained at least three other times since late November in what supporters call an official campaign of harassment. In those incidents he was held on suspicion of using a forged passport, of dealing drugs and of killing a pedestrian in a traffic accident. No charges were filed in any of those cases.

Under Lukashenko, Belarus has cracked down on opposition and independent news media and has become a pariah state to the West.

Milinkevich ran against Lukashenko in the March 2006 presidential elections that were widely criticized in the West as neither free nor fair. A large, unauthorized protest rally took place on the night of the elections in Minsk and protests continued daily for a week - an unusual series of events in a country where unsanctioned gatherings are usually broken up swiftly and harshly by police.

Another protest in April gathered at least 10,000 people. Milinkevich was arrested after it and sentenced to 15 days in jail.

Another opposition candidate, Alexander Kozulin, was arrested in the March protests and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/06/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-Opposition.php