Authorities: Persons in plain clothes are a police officer and two sergeants

A representative of the police department of the Brest region executive committee, Uladzimir Sycheuski, said people in plainclothes on Wednesday protests were police officers.

The official says police worked in full accordance with the law during outdoor gatherings on Wednesdays, Belsat reports.

“Policemen did not insult any people detained. Persons in plain clothes are police officers. Organizers of actions prepared for their work, but police also prepared. Most our groups at the latest actions consisted of an officer and two sergeants,” Sycheuski said.

Uladzimir Sycheuski claims policemen were polite: “No complaints at actions by law enforcement officers were filed to the prosecutor’s office.” The official added the police had boosted security measures, because the city authorities defined special places for holding mass events – the park of international soldiers and Lokomotiv stadium. By the way, Brest police viewed a variant of detaining people at silent protests in the city centre and taking them to the permitted places.

About 100 persons were detained in Brest during protest actions on Wednesdays, Viasna human rights centre reports.

Human rights activist Uladizmir Labkovich says that under the law police officers have the right to work in plain clothes: “But at the same time, they must observe the law. It means that they must introduce themselves, say the reason for detention and do not use physical force without grounds.

Human rights activists in journalists saw the opposite in Brest and other Belarusian cities. Now, when the representative of Brest police said who these men in plain clothes were, we need to file complaint to a prosecutor’s office.”