Prison for national flag?

Barys Khamaida and Aliaksandar Salauyan, democratic activists from Vitebsk, were detained yesterday. They spent the night in the remand jail.

Ihar Balashou, duty officer of Kastrychnitski district police department, refused to tell journalists what offence the activists had been detained for, RFE/RL reports.

Paval Levinau, representative of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, had to write a complaint against unlawful activity of the police, and call the local internal affairs department. He was told Khamaida and Salauyan had been detained the day before at 7pm, and were kept in police department. They are charged with holding an unauthorized picket which they allegedly had by having hung out a white-red-white national flag.

The trial is to take place in Kastrychnitski court of Vitebsk.