Minsk: Police Detain Carload of Officially Printed Election Fly-sheets of BPF Candidates
At about 2 a.m. on 5 January 2007 the police seized a carload of election leaflets that a member of the Belarusian People’s Front (BPF) attempted to bring to Minsk on Friday evening. A car driven by Siarhei Karpovich, a candidate in the coming election for Minsk City Deputy Soviet, was pulled over by policemen in the Shabany neighborhood on the outskirts of the Belarusian capital at 2 a.m.
According to Ian Davidovich, an occupant of the car, the police appeared to have been tipped off in advance. ‘They ordered us to open the trunk as if they knew [what was there], then took a copy of each leaflet and had a conversation for some time. They ordered us to come to a police department to ‘sort things out’ afterward,’ the activist said.
The men were let go three hours later but the printed materials, destined for four BPF candidates in Minsk, including for Chairman Vintsuk Viachorka are still detained because of the alleged suspicion that the invoice was fake.
