Two opposition youths arrested in Brest ahead of Independence March

Two opposition youths were arrested in Brest at Thursday noon as they were about to board a train heading for Minsk.

Andrey Sharenda and Mikhail Ilyin, both members of the Malady Front group, had planned to attend an opposition street protest in the Belarusian capital later in the day.

The pair were picked up by police in front of Brest’s central railroad station, human rights defender Raman Kislyak told BelaPAN.

“The police officers told them to produce their identification documents. Sharenda did not have such on him and the activists were taken to the Leninski district police department,” Mr. Kislyak said, adding that the police considered charging the youths with petty hooliganism.

Mr. Kislyak noted that the police appeared to have resumed the practice of arresting opposition activists ahead of street protests.

The demonstration, which Malady Front calls the Independence March, is timed to coincide with the 14th anniversary of the 1995 referendum called by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, which restored the country’s Soviet-era state emblems and granted the status of state language to Russian.