Police Fails to Find Evidence against Democratic Activist
On March 17 at 3 p.m. Brest police detained Dzianis Turchaniak on the territory of Brest fortress. He was detained for alleged distribution of flyers inviting people to attend the celebration of the Freedom Day rally in Minsk on March 25. For almost an hour the policemen waited for a police car. Then for another 1.5 hours they drove him to Leninsk police department of Brest. At 5.40 the guy was brought to the police station. However, the police officers failed to find any evidence of his guilt. That is why at 6 p.m., without drawing any reports or explanations, Dzianis was allowed to leave the police station.
Human rights defender Uladzimir Vialichkin comments on the detention:
“It is easy to explain the actions of police: in the run to the Freedom Day the police is taking preventive measures in an attempt not to allow any public protest and other actions of the opposition. Dzianis is one of pro-democrat5ic youth activists, and the interest of police to him in this period is predictable. Recently, KGB people demonstrated interest to young activists in Baranavichy; on March 16 a number of youth activists in Brest were summoned to come to Brest KGB. We can draw a conclusion that there was an order from the center to take counter-measures against the opposition. That’s what we observe today”.
