Minsk: detained for chanting ‘Long Live Belarus!’
Siarhei Kavalenka. Photo by RFE
On 12 October the member of the Conservative-Christian Party BPF Siarhei Kavalenka was detained by the police.
As stated by the policemen who patrolled Peramohi Square in Minsk, Siarhei Kavalenka loudly cried out ‘Long Live Belarus!’, that’s why they thought he was violating the public order and detained him.
Vitsebsk activist Valery Ramanenka who met with Mr.Kavalenka prior to the detention, pointed that the police patrol had noticed that they had been speaking Belarusian and that Kavalenka had been detained soon after the end of the meeting.
Siarhei Kavalenka refused to undergo an alcohol test to which the police was trying to send him. In an hour the activist was released. According to Siarhei, the head of the civil security department of the police Aliaksandr Kalinouski, who was called for discriminating in the situation, decided that there was no need to give any charges to the detainee.
