Criminal Case Brought against Anatol Shumchanka, Leader of Entrepreneurs

At 7 p.m. on 11 March the term of the 10-day administrative arrest of Anatol Shumchanka, the leader of the national public association Initiative, was over. Shumchanka was sentenced to it for violation of part 2 of Article 167.1 of the Code of Administrative Violations (organization of unauthorized meeting of entrepreneurs in Kastrychnitskaia Square of Minsk on 1 March 2005). However, Shumchanka wasn’t let out of the detention center. Instead, the authorities brought against him a criminal case upon part 1 of Article #339 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (hooliganism). A. Shumchanka is suspected in having violently beaten his cell-mate during the arrest. That’s why he was transferred to and isolator and on 12 March interrogated at Minsk Maskouski Borough Board of Internal Affairs.