BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/03/2007

Belarusian Courts, Police Continue To Persecute Opposition Activists

Police on March 21 arrested Barys Haretski, an activist of the unregistered opposition organization Youth Front, in Minsk, Belapan reported. His brother told the agency that he links the arrest of Barys to the opposition demonstration scheduled for March 25. Barys Haretski and several other Youth Front activists are under criminal prosecution on suspicion of acting on behalf of an unregistered organization. On March 20 in Pinsk, southern Belarus, police arrested Alyaksandr Ramanovich, an activist of the opposition Belarusian Popular Front. Also on March 20, a district court in Hrodna sentenced young opposition activist Andrey Famin on a charge of "petty hooliganism." Famin was reportedly taken to the Hrodna regional office of the Committee for State Security (KGB) from his university and questioned in connection with a criminal investigation into the activities of the Youth Front. Upon leaving the KGB office, he was picked up by two policemen, who accused him of using obscene language. On March 19, a district court in Hrodna sentenced Ihar Bantsyr, a staff writer with the independent Polish-language "Magazyn Polski na Uchodztwie" magazine, to 10 days in jail, finding him guilty of using obscene language in public. Bantsyr reportedly links his jail sentence to the fact that last week he witnessed a drinking spree by police officers in Hrodna during which they allegedly blocked cars on the street and manhandled pedestrians. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/03/3-CEE/cee-220307.asp