Distributor of Mestnaya Gazeta Detained in Vaukavysk

According to the information, presented to Belarusian Association of Journalists by the chief editor of the non-state newspaper Mestnaya Gazeta Andrei Shantarovich, in the morning of 10 November the police detained at a mini-market in Vaukavysk the distributor of Mestnaya Gazeta Marharyta Makavietskaia and confiscated from her 400 copies of the edition. The total print-run of the newspaper is about 5 000 copies.

The policemen composed a report and took the detainee to the court, which the same day fined her 10 000 rubles for selling the newspapers in unsuitable place. A. Shantarovich believes the police acted on order of the chair of Vaukavysk District Executive Committee Mikhail Savielieu. He thinks that the sanctions against the newspaper are connected to the active elucidation of the conflict between the businessman Mikalai Autukhovich and the local authorities.