28 July 2007
Police release captured opposition activists with no charges against them
Opposition activists who were grabbed by police at the center of Minsk on July 27 as they attempted to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the adoption of the State Sovereignty Declaration soon started being released with no charges against them.
In particular, Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party, was allowed to go three hours after his arrest.
As Mr. Lyabedzka told BelaPAN, he was captured by plainclothesmen while he was approaching Independence Square to attend a meeting with former lawmakers who adopted the Declaration in 1990. He was then handed over to police officers who forced him into a car and drove him to the Zavodski district police station.
According to Viktar Ivashkevich, a leader of the Belarusian Popular Front, he and all those who were arrested together with him and taken to the Tsentralny district police station were released after about three hours with no charges brought against them.
As he said, policemen indicated that there was an order not to charge and jail oppositionists that day.
However, Franak Vyachorka, the 19-year-old son of Belarusian Popular Front Chairman Vintsuk Vyachorka, was not released but was taken to the detention center on Akrestsina Street where he expected to be held until his trial on July 30. Police had reportedly found on him some stickers advertising the rally on Independence Square.
According to Mr. Ivashkevich, there were several dozen people, mostly youths, held captive together with him in a police bus following his arrest at about 4 p.m. near Hotel Minsk.
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