Detained Young Front Activists Were Released with No Violation Reports Drawn up

18.02.2008. Tags: Young Front, political persecution, detentions, youth leaders.
Source: Charter`97.

All members of the underground oppositional organization Young Front arrested near Minsk on Saturday were released without charges later that day.

31 activists were holding a meeting of the organization’s Central Council in a village house a dozen kilometers outside Minsk when police officers burst the door in. All of the youths were bundled into police vehicles and brought to the Minsk district police department.

As Pavel Nazdra, one of the activists, told to BelaPAN, each of the youths was interviewed by police officers. ‘They said that they had received a report that the house in the Minsk district where we were meeting was to be set on fire’, Mr.Nazdra said. ‘The police officers said that they had had to rush to the scene and break the house’s door to prevent us from burning ourselves alive. But I had an impression that they were ashamed of the nonsense that they were forced to say.’

Young Front has been recently registered in the Czech Republic after five attempts to obtain registration with the Belarusian justice ministry, which refused each time, as it usually happens to all oppositional organizations.

The absence of legal status has allowed Belarusian authorities to prosecute many of its members under an article of the Criminal Code that penalizes ‘acting on behalf of an unregistered organization.’