Statkevich Detained At Rally Against Battery Factory In Brest

Blogger Piatrukhin and two other activists were detained together with the politician.

On October 14, opponents of the battery factory construction gathered again at Lenin Square in Brest. One of the leaders of the Belarusian National Congress, opposition politician Mikalai Statkevich, was among them.

During the rally, he was detained by security forces, tut.by reports.

Video bloggers Siarhei Piatrukhin and Aliaksandr Kabanau, who were covering the situation with the battery plant construction on the Narodny Repartsior channel, were detained together with Statkevich.

According to preliminary information, they were taken to the Leninski district police department of Brest.

Besides, before the start of the unauthorized rally, plant construction opponent Dzmitry Bekaliuk was detained at the entrance to the city.

The battery plant is being built at the Airport industrial site in the Brest free economic zone by the LLC iPower. Residents of Brest and several villages of the Brest region believe that the plant threatens their health. From February 25, every Sunday, opponents of the battery plant construction come to Lenin Square in Brest and exchange the latest news about the construction.

On April 29, on the outskirts of Brest, in the Park of the Warriors-Internationalists, an authorities-sanctioned rally, “Brest Women Against Lead,” attended by about two thousand people, took place. Since then, repeated attempts of battery plant construction opponents to obtain permission to hold a rally have not met with success – the city authorities have not given the green light, reasoning that other events were planned on the announced dates.