The Zubr coordinator Uladzimier Kobiets and Georgian activists detained by the police

24.08.2005.

On 24 August in Minsk in Peramohi Square the police detained the Zubr movement coordinator Uladzimier Kobiets and activists of the Georgian youth organization "Kkhmara" Georgi Kandelaki and Luka Tsuladze, reported Radio Liberty. The people behind the detention introduced themselves as criminal investigation officers from Maskouski Borough Department of Minsk. One of them gave his name – Kalatsei. The detained activists were taken to the criminal investigation department of Maskouski district in Hrushauskaya Street, where police officers talked to each of them separately. Kobiets had to give his fingerprints, they also filmed everything; no charges were brought, they only asked questions about the place of employment. In several hours Uladzimier Kobiets was released, but the whereabouts of the citizens of Georgia and what the authorities plan to do with them are not known. According to some sources, they may be deported from Belarus for acting in breach of the registration rules for foreign nationals.
At the same time, the information department of Minsk Police Department confirmed detention of two citizens of Georgia. The Interfax quotes the Interior Ministry as saying that the Georgian citizens were detained by the police during "the police raid in the Zviazda hotel where they were staying". The Minsk police information department head Aleh Sliepchanka said to the agency that the documents of the Georgian citizens caused the police suspicion, "which contained either corrections or erasures".

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