Former political prisoner detained for participating in protests in Kurapaty


Pavel Sevyarynets, the leader of the protests in Kurapaty and co-chairman of the organising committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy, has been detained today, his wife Volha said on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/vola.szylak/posts/1547815545328920

According to eyewitnesses, policemen forcibly put him into a car in Kurapaty. At the moment, his phone is not available.

Activist Volha Nikalaichyk was also detained, Leanid Kulakou said on Facebook. They might have been taken to a local police station in Baraulyany, he added.

https://www.facebook.com/leonid.kulakov.1/posts/1708905945852487

Defenders of Kurapaty, the place of Stalin-era executions near Minsk, keep protesting against ‘dancing on the bones’, i.e. opening the restaurant Let’s Go And Eat in the close vicinity of the mass grave. Activists first asked the authorities to interfere with the situation, and then decided to act independently. They are trying to block the arrival of cars with products on the territory of the restaurant.

On June 3, a memorial rally Day of Genocide Remembrance authorized by the city authorities took place in Kurapaty. It was dedicated to the anniversary of the discovery of the truth about mass shootings in the area during the Stalin times.

Kurapaty, a place on the outskirts of Minsk, is not just the national memorial and a mass grave of the victims of Stalinist repression; since 1993, it has been is a site of historical and cultural heritage. According to historians, 100,000 – 250,000 persons might have been killed there.

As recently as yesterday, our colleague Katsyaryna Andreyeva was brutally detained in Kurapaty. She was taken to a police station and forced to strip down to underwear. In search of a recording device, a female employee inspected her. A protocol was drawn upon Andreyeva under Art. 22.9 of the Administrative Code (illegal production and distribution of media products, i.e.working without accreditation).

(UPD) Pavel Sevyarynets has been released after the police made five protocols on him.

ІІ, belsat.eu

TWITTER