Search and interrogation concerning arson of the Palace of Justice

On 3 June the apartment of an activist of the Movement Forward Dzmitry Niafiodau was searched by the police headed by investigator Khamenka. Before this, he was also interrogated concernign the case of arson of the Palace of Justice in Minsk. Then he was guarded to the Minsk KGB, from which he was transferred to the Zavadski District Police Department of Minsk. He spent the weekend at the delinquents’ isolation center in Akrestsin Street in Minsk.

The police charged him under Article 17.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences, “using obscene language in public” for alleged use of four-letter words during the search.

On 6 June Niafiodau’s case was tried by Mikalai Balauniou, Judge of the Zavadski District Court of Minsk. The judge noticed that the alleged time of the offence indicated in the police report differed from the time of the search. As a result, he returned the case to the police for revising.