Tovarishch Editor Appeals against Police Raid

The chief editor of the Tovarishch, newspaper of the oppositional Party of Communists of Belarus (PCB), has lodged a complaint with the Prosecutor General’s Office and Leninski district prosecutor’s office in Minsk in connection with the last month’s police raid on the newspaper’s office.

Policemen seized thousands Tovarishch copies during the 27 September raid and the chief editor Siarhei Vazniak claims that he was mistreated by the police officers.

‘While seizing the print-run of the newspaper, the policemen used force, twisting my arms, to take away my cell phone that I was going to use to tell the party’s leaders about the incident’, Mr. Vazniak told BelaPAN.

In the complaint, the editor says that the policemen violated certain rules while seizing the copies. The police have not returned the seized copies so far. ‘The police officer responsible for its seizure has been away from work for three days and has not picked up his office phone. There’s an impression that he’s hiding from me. He promised to call me but he does not,’ Mr. Vazniak said.

A total of 14,000 Tovarishch copies were seized by police in Minsk and Zhlobin, Homel region, on 27 September.