Mikalai Dziadok charged with participation in anti-military action near General Staff

On 1 October the youth activist Mikalai Dziadok was charged with involvement in the action of protest against the Belarusian-Russian military training West 2009 that was held near the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense on 19 September 2009.

According to the official information, a smoke bomb had been thrown on the territory of the General Staff during the action. Mr. Dziadok was charged with violation of Article 339, part 2 of the Criminal Code (hooliganism, committed group of individuals). At first he was kept in the delinquents’ isolation center in Akrestsin Street, and on 24 September he was transferred to the prison in Valadarski Street where he will be kept till the trial.

One of the irregularities of this case is that Mikalai Dziadok was detained for 29 days before being arrested, though the legal term of detention without charges is 3 days and can be extended to 10 days by the prosecutor.

Repressions against activists of the anarchist movement take place all over the country – in Homel, Brest, Hrodna and Salihorsk. About 50 persons were summoned to KGB offices for interrogation. Computers and literary editions were confiscated from many of them.

On 30 September Barys Ashchepau was detained within the framework of this very case. He helped the parents of the youth activists who had been detained earlier on suspicion in the attacks on the Russian Embassy and the delinquents’ isolation center to maintain contacts with human rights defenders. In the morning he was arrested for three days. Barys is kept in the Tsentralny District Police Department in Minsk.

You can support Mikalai Dziadok by sending letters on the address:

To: Dziadok Mikalai

Valadarski Street, 2-42,
220050, Minsk,
Republic of Belarus