25 People Detained in Vitebsk

30.10.2007. Tags: actions, detentions.

The participants of an action of commemoration of victims of Stalinist repressions have been detained today. On October 30^th local activists of the pro-democratic parties and non-governmental organizations together with human rights activists held an action of memory on the place of mass executions during Stalinist repressions in Paliai.

From the very beginning the action participants were watched by representatives of law-enforcement bodies, but after some time all the people were detained for participation in an unauthorized mass event – 25 people in total. Now they are in the Vitebsk district police department now.

Charter’97 reports, among the detainees there are journalists and members of Belarusian Association of Journalists Alena Stsiapanava, Leanid Svetsik, Vadzim Barshcheuski and Siarhei Piatrenka. As Leanid Svetik told BAJ press-service on the phone, the participants of the action-requiem, having paid the tribute to the memory of victims of Stalinism, were going to come back to Vitebsk, when police detained their bus and had it go it to the district police department. The detainees were told they were suspected of participation in an unauthorized mass event.

The action was devoted to 70th anniversary of the culmination of Stalin’s terror in 1937. The democratic activists installed a memorial cross on the site of mass executions in the Paliai area.