18 March – Belarus Sees More Detentions of Activists of Electoral Campaign
According to RFE/RL
Astravets: -- the local activist of the electoral campaign Mikalai Ulasevich was charged with disobedience to the police orders (article 166 of the Code of Administative Violations). He was standing in a street, when two policemen came up and demanded to go with them to a police station. He asked them why, then they pulled him to the police station forcibly. Today, despite the fact that Saturdays and Sundays are traditional days off for Belarusian courts, Mr Ulasevich was sentenced to 5 days of jail.
Home: in the morning of 18 March the transport police detained three citizens of Russia: Alexey Novosyolov, Andrey Khachaturyan and Aleksandr Galmakov. All detainees are students from Ekaterinburg and correspondents of the newspaper Pravoye delo. The police refused to tell the reasons for the detention. Two other journalists from Pravoye delo were detained in Hrodna, but released in an hour.
Vaukavysk: the police detained the chief editor of Mestnaya gazeta Andrei Shantarovich. In this town since 17 March the police have kept duty at the entrance of the houses where the local public activists live. One of them, Aliaksandr Baradaukin, was even warned he would be detained in the case he would attempt to depart to Minsk. Mikola Aksamit also sits in his flat and looks at the police from his balcony. When he started to take photos, the police car departed.
Brest: at about 12 a.m. the police blocked the car of the chair of Brest regional electoral headquarters of Aliaksandr Milinkevich Iury Hubarevich. He managed to inform the journalists about it, and then the mobile was turned off. Now he is kept at Brest Maskouski Borough Board of Internal Affairs.
We should remind that this week Brest police have arrested other activists of the electoral campaign of Aliaksandr Milinkevich - Ryhor Bakievich, Stsiapan Navaselchan and Dzmitry Shymanski.
Shchuchyn: the public activist Vasil Biazmen was sentenced to 10 days of jail for ‘swearing’ (‘petty hooliganism’, article 156 of the Code of Administrative Violations). Two workers of the hospital where Mr Biazmen works, said they have never had him utter a wrong word, but, predictably enough, the court ignored their testimonies.
Pinsk: the activist of Milinkevich’s headquarters, military pensioner Pavel Aliakhnovich who on 15 March was put behind bars for ‘petty hooliganism’, has declared a hunger-strike of protest against the punishment, which he believes to be unjust and politically motivated.
