In Minsk Russian Activists Sentenced to 10 and 15 Days

26.07.2006.

Today two activists of the Russian youth movement Oborona Nikolay Zboroshenko and Ekaterina Vinokurova, who is also a leader of the youth branch of the Republican party of Russia, have been sentenced to 15 and 10 days of arrest by the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk. On July 23 the young activists took part in the rally near the Russian Embassy in Minsk with a demand to stop Russias support to Lukashenkas regime. The Russian citizens were charged with participation in an unsanctioned rally. They are to serve a sentence in the special detention center in Akrestsin street.

Participants of the picket tried to unfurl a streamer with the words Russia without Putin, Belarus without Lukashenka. They were also scanning slogans: We need a different Russia, we need a different Belarus, No to support of the Belarusian dictator.

As we have informed, on July 16, on the Day of Solidarity with Belarus, 47 Belarusian citizens were arrested near the Russian Embassy in Minsk. The Belarusian citizens planned to demand bringing up the Belarusian issue at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg and urge Russia to stop support of the Belarusian dictatorship. Participants of the rally were holding portraits of politicians and a journalist abducted in Belarus, candles of solidarity with political prisoners and repressed Belarusians. Riot policemen brutally battered people during detention.
Source: www.charter97.org