Everybody should take part in “election” …or prison in Akrestsin Street expect you

An activist of the civil campaign “European Belarus” Paval Kuryanovich has been sentenced by the court of Maskouski district of Minsk to 15 days of arrest. The oppositionist arrested during the storing of the head office of the Young Front by riot policemen, has been framed up for petty hooliganism. Leaders of the Young Front Artur Finkevich and Zmitser Dashkevich are in the prison in Akrestsin Street as well.

Artur Finkevich and Zmitser Dashkevich in their absence have been sentenced to 7 days of arrest for participation in the rally on May 1 dedicated to enlargement of the European Union. More than 30 persons were detained then when activists of the civil campaign “European Belarus” took to the streets with European flags. As a protest, Young Front leaders have gone on a hunger strike in prison.

Yesterday evening riot policemen policemen and KGB officers broke into the head office of the Young Front in Karol Street in Minsk. When breaking into the office, policemen broke two entrance doors of the head office. The leaders of the organisation Zmitser Dashkevich and Artur Finkevich, as well as 4 activists of the Young Front and an activist of the civil campaign “European Belarus” Paval Kuryanovich were arrested.

As one of the leaders of the Young Front Artur Finkevich told to the Charter’97 press-centre before the arrest, law-enforcers were watching for about an hour outside the building where the apartment was rented by the Young Front activists. Then they rang the door and demanded to open. They didn’t show the search warrant, they simply said that they had received an anonymous phone call about a dead body in the apartment. When the doors were not open to them, policemen and riot policemen started to burst it by a tool reminding a sledge-hammer. Leaders of the Young Front Zmitser Dashkevich and Artur Finkevich with a few activists of the organisation were in the apartment at that moment.

From the police department of Maskouski district Zmitser Dashkevich, Artur Finkevich and Paval Kuryanovich were sent to the detention centre in Akrestsin Street. They were kept there until 2 a.m. other detained were released without a report being drawn up. They were fingerprinted, videoed and pictured.

As we have informed, youth organisations have announced a boycott to the “parliamentary elections” which is to take place in Belarus this autumn. Human rights activist link arrests of the activists with the active campaign urging to boycott the election, which wouldn’t be free, as is already obvious now.