Brest Region: Police Detain Opposition Activists
Source: www.charter97.org
Democratic activists Andrei Sharenda and Dzianis Turchaniak were detained in Brest. The press-service of the United Civil party has been informed about that by the candidate for deputy of Brest regional and district deputy soviets Stsiapan Navaselchan. The detainees have been taken to the police department of Maskouski borough of Brest. Dzianis Turchaniak was detained on suspicion in a carjack.
Stsiapan Navaselchan does not rule out that the authorities repeat the scenario of the last presidential election campaign (in spring 2006 hundreds of democratic activists, supporting candidate Aliaksandr Milinkevich, were detained all over Belarus and Stsiapan Navaselchan was arrested for 20 days).
A member of the United Civil Party Uladzimir Radzivonchyk was detained in Pruzhany. He managed to tell on the phone that three persons detained him, supposedly, police officers. Radzivonchyk was taken to a police department. He is charged with hooliganism against a person completely unknown for the politician. At the moment the UCP member is prohibited to answer the phone.
Uladzimir Radzivonchyk was collecting signatures as a candidate for deputy seat. However in an election commission he was denied registration on far-fetched reasons. One cannot exclude that local authorities fear the activist’s participation in election monitoring, that is why they tried to stop him.
