Preventive Detention in Aziarets Settlement on the Eve of Lukashenka’s Visit

Today, on 30 August, Zhdanovichy court sentenced an activist of the civil campaign For Freedom! from Aziarets Yauhen Silvanovich to five days of jail. The activist was detained in the evening of 29 August by workers of Zhdanovichy district police department. 

The policemen came to the private house of the Silvanovichs. They put down the passport data of the family and said they wanted to conduct a search. Yauhen’s parents did not let them do it, because the policemen presented no warrant. 

Then the visitors went away. Soon Yauhen went out of the house and was detained by the same policemen who were hiding nearby. They took him to Zhdanovichy district police department and composed a report for ‘petty hooliganism’. They accused him of dirty swearing in the yard of his own house. Today Yauhen Silvanovich has been sentenced to five days of jail. 

The activist associates his arrest with Lukashenka’s visit to the settlement on 1 September. That day a new school will be opened in Aziarets to mark the beginning of a new curriculum year. Most probably, the local authorities decided to isolate the activist to be on the safe side.