Revenge for sanctions

Alyaksandr Atroshchankau, Syarhei Kalyakin and Anatol Lyabedzka remain in custody.

The opposition leaders are stand trial on March 29. The politicians remained in custody on March 28 pending trial.

“We were arrested to prevent us from visiting Brussels. The authorities want to see there only those sharing official views. The situation was caused also by a half-way position of the EU. The authorities try to define who can belong to the opposition and who cannot. It was revenge on us for the principled position of imposing sanctions on the dictatorship,” Alyaksandr Atroshchankau told charter97.org on the phone.

Alyaksandr Atroshchankau, Syarhei Kalyakin and Anatol Lyabedzka were taken off a train in Orsha on their way from Minsk to Moscow on the night of March 28.

Alyaksandr Atroshchankau, a coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign and former political prisoner, managed to phone charter97.org, but was unable to talk. During five minutes, we heard the attempts to get him, leader of Fair World Party Syarhei Kalyakin and leader of the United Civil Party Anatol Lyabedzka, off the train.

Syarhei Kalyakin demanded that people, who entered their compartment to detain them, should introduce themselves. He was saying he did not want to follow unknown people and recalled cases of political kidnappings and killings in Belarus.

The politicians were detained and taken to a police department in Orsha. Policemen took away their cell phones.

It became known later that the opposition members were taken off Minsk-Moscow train in Orsha and guarded to the police department of Orsha.

Alyaksandr Atroshchankau, Syarhei Kalyakin and Anatol Lyabedzka were going to Moscow and then to Brussels to attend European Commission's meetings on March 29.