Detained for Handing out Registered Independent Press

According to the information, given to Belarusian Association of Journalists by the vice-editor Sviatlana Kalinkina, this week Narodnaia Volia daily will keep to its usual schedule and plans to issue five numbers. Meanwhile, the police have started to detain public activists for distribution of this newspaper.

On 7 October in Hrodna the police detained Ivan Roman, correspondent of Salidarnasc newspaper, for handing out Narodnaia Volia issue devoted to the Congress of Democratic Forces, to workers of auto-supplies factory. The policemen detained him for about an hour and even composed a report for handing out the newspaper.

-- I was quite surprised they appeared in seven minutes, said Ivan Roman. They composed the report for handing out Narodnaia Volia. However, it can’t be considered as corpus delicti according to Belarusian legislation!”