Two people arrested for wearing t-shirts with word Belarus at Catholic festival in Budslau
Police in plain clothes detained two participants at Budslau festival wearing T-shirts with national symbols.
This is what the representative of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party Pavel Prakapovich told Nasha Niva.
The participants – probably they were father and son – were detained by men in civilian clothes with walkie-talkies and taken to the police station. The police colonel Yury Zhalubouski, deputy chief of the Myadzel executive committee Interior department held a conversation with the detainees, during which they were told that “the religious event shoukl not be turned into a political one”, said Pavel Prakapovich who witnessed the incident.
Detainees wore T-shirts with inscriptions ‘Belarus’ in Belarusian and in English.
They were later escorted by the riot police off the territory of the festival to their car.
The authorities did not ask the opinion of the Budslau festival organizers if they thought that the patriotic symbols had anything to do with “politics”.
The fest of Our Lady of Budslau this year was attended by over 10,000 people, including 3,000 pilgrims on foot.
A big part of the participants, mostly young people, were wearing on the day of the festival embroidered Belarusian shirts and other clothes with national ornaments and symbols.
Celebrations in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God of Budslau this year were held on July 3-4.
