“European Belarus” activist Paval Kuryanovich in jail on Akrestin Street

Activist of the “European Belarus” civil campaign Paval Kuryanovich is still in a jail on Akrestin Street in Minsk. On 8 August, the oppositionist was sentenced to 15-day arrest on a false charge of “hooliganism”.

In the evening of 7 August, riot militiamen and KGB officers broke into the head office of the Young Front. Militiamen didn’t show a warrant for search, they said they had received an anonymous telephone call saying allegedly a dead body was in the flat. When breaking into the office, militiamen broke two entrance doors of the head office. The leaders of the organisation Zmitser Dashkevich and Artur Finkevich, as well as activist of the “European Belarus” civil campaign Paval Kuryanovich, were arrested.

The Young Front leaders were guarded to the detention center to for 7 days of arrest. They got their terms of arrest in absentia for participating in the 1 May street action, dedicated to the EU expansion. They are at large now. Paval Kuryanovich was sentenced to 15 days of arrest on 8 August. The activist is to leave the jail tomorrow.

“The authorities are afraid of the active youth ahead of the “parliamentary election” this autumn. Many youth organisations supported boycott of the election, which, as it well seen today, will be unfree and non-democratic,” Paval Kuryanovich’s sister Palina commented on his arrest. She also served her numerous terms of arrests in the detention center for expressing her position.