Former political prisoner Siarhei Kazakou gets detained
Siarhei Kazakou, a former
political prisoner and activist of the “European Belarus” civil campaign, was
detained in the evening of 8 November at the central railway station in Minsk.
Two policemen approached him and said he was detained. They refused to
introduce themselves and explain the situation. “I began to demand they should
introduce themselves and show their police cards. I tried to figure out why
they detained me. They ignored my questions and rudely ordered me to follow
them to the police station. I was presented with charges. They drew up a report
saying I was drunk, behaved aggressively, ignored remarks and swore. The standard
accusation, nothing new,” Siarhei says.
“I was left in the office until 2
a.m. They wanted me to admit my guilt. I was then taken
for a medical examination to undergo alcohol tests. I refused to do so, because
it insults my dignity. They seized my personal belonging and threw me into a
cell. I was there until 8 a.m.
They released me and return my belongings, but I saw that SIM cards were not
inserted correctly in the cell phone. They inserted the card in the modem the
other way round. I am now going to screen my laptop for malware and viruses,
because I think that checking my personal belongings was the main aim of the
detention.”
Siarhei Kazakou was involved in criminal case over the “mass riot” in Minsk on 19 December. Minsk's Maskouski district court sentenced Siarhei Kazakou to 3 years in jail on 12 May 2011. He was pardoned by Lukashenka on 11 August 2011, and left the jail on 13 August.
