Minsk imprisons a Ukrainian for supporting the opposition

In Minsk a Ukrainian national has been detained after distributing leaflets supporting the opposition. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press Service, referring to information received from the Ukrainian Embassy in Belarus, report that the Central District Court in Minsk ruled to imprison the Ukrainian national for three days.

The grounds given were her having been detained on Sunday for distributing leaflets with a picture of the Belarusian opposition leader Aleksandr Milinkevich. The embassy stresses that it has applied all means available to secure the woman’s rights and interests.

She is presently being held in a reception centre for vagrants of the central police department of the Minsk City Executive Committee, and according to the court ruling should be released on Tuesday at 15.00.

As already reported, the protest by the Belarusian opposition on 25 March in Minsk to mark Freedom Day was broken up. According to media estimates, around 30 people were detained.

The day before, law enforcement officers had detained several dozen opposition figures. The overall number of people detained came to around one hundred.