Mahiliou Labor Union Activist Appeals against Detentions

23.10.2006.

This is the second time in October that Mahiliou police detains Yury Darashenka, public activist and distributor of Express-Info newsletter. This time the police detained him near the gates of Mahiliou metallurgical work. Yury Darashenka was handing out the last issue of the newsletter which is a registered edition and complies with all requirements of the Law on press. However, someone from the company staff called for police. The police came, detained Darashenka and took him to Leninski police department. Despite the fact that the police received all documents that proved that the newsletter was legal, they did not let Darashenka go for 40 minutes. This is how much time police captain Yury Kirylovich needed to read the newsletter. Then the police asked Darashenka to write an explanation and released him without drawing any reports or making any apologies.

However, Yury Darashenka thinks this should not be the end of the story. He filed a special complaint to Mahiliou region police department. In the complaint he describes the illegal actions of Mahiliou police who consistently create obstacles for legal spreading of information, reports press-service of the Assembly of Democratic NGOs.