02.07.2009 ARCHE extremism case terminated

Brest Maskouski Court has terminated the legal prosecution of the ARCHE analytical magazine for alledged propaganda of extremism after the local KGB department declared they would not insist on putting the charge on the defendant. According to an official letter recieved by ARCHE, the hearing was closed, the judge and the secretary being the only persons present.

02.07.2009 Supreme Court reaffirms decision to deny registration to Young Democrats

The Supreme Court of Belarus has reaffirmed the decision by the Ministry of Justice to disallow registration to the Young Democrats political party due to a number of misspellings in the body of the application. The founders of the party are sure the decision is groundless, since the few insignificant flaws could have been easily corrected upon the request of the Ministry of Justice. In their reply to the application, the registration officials have also stressed that the organization's name does not correspond to its Charter. The Supreme Court did not take this into consideration, but suported the stance of the Ministry in general.

02.07.2009 Arrests of oppositionists at fest in Budslau

Paval Sevyarynets, co-chairman of the Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD), and other opposition activists are among the detained.

On July 2, a fest of worship of icon of Our Lady of Budslau, patroness of Belarus, takes place in Budslau (the Myadzel district, the Minsk region). A reason for the detention of Paval Sevyarynets and three BCD activists was the fact that the young people had some dozens of BCD bulletin “Krynitsa” on them.