Authorities Imitate Dialog with Defenders of Historical Center of Hrodna

According to the BAJ press-service

At about 4.30 p.m. on 6 June in Hrodna the police detained the distributors of the registered non-state newspaper Nasha Slova. The activists of the campaign Let’s Save Hrodna Viktar Barnashou and Yaraslau Hryshchenia distributed the newspaper near the entrance of the main building of Hrodna State University, where a round table with the participation of the local officials and the city public concerning the reconstruction of the historical center of the city was taking place.

The university guards didn’t admit to the round table the independent journalist Ales Zaleuski and the author of an alternative project for the city reconstruction Andrei Vashkevich and explained to them that they were not put into the list of the invited persons. When Zaleuski tried to find out who composed the list, the university provost Tatsiana Badziukova called the police, who detained him.

At that moment the policemen noticed the newspaper distributors and detained them as well. In two hours the detainees were released, as the newspaper had official registration. It’s worth mentioning that the distributed number of the newspaper was dedicated to the reconstruction and published the opinions of well-known public figures, historians and archeologists.

The journalist of Radio Liberty Siarhei Astrautsou made photos of the detention. A university guard ran towards him and started twisting his arms, trying to grab the camera. He took the camera, but the journalist said his certificate and then the guard had to return the equipment. However, he prohibited making any photos. He also refused to call his name, but the students who witnessed the incident said that it was the deputy chair of the university security service.