Minsk: ‘Young Front’ activists detained for action near KGB office

Seven members of the Young Front opposition youth group were grabbed by police during a demonstration near the headquarters of the Committee for State Security (KGB) in Minsk on 7 November. The young people were standing in front of the KGB founder Felix Dzerzhinsky's bust, holding a sign that said, ‘Communism must be brought before tribunal!’

The protest was timed to coincide with the 91st anniversary of the October Revolution still observed in Belarus as a public holiday.

The youths were brought to a district police department and interviewed. Yuliya Mikhailava and Alexander Rymsha, who have not yet turned 18, were released later in the day. The administrative cases against them were directed to the appropriate administrative commissions and soon will be considered by these state organs.

On 10 November the rest of the detainees, Nasta Loika, Nasta Palazhanka, Anton Rusin, Tatsiana Shaputska and Aliaksei Yanusheuski, were tried at Leninski district court in Minsk. All of them were sentenced to three days of jail, which they have already served, as they were kept in jail till the trial.

The activists’ friends have been waiting for them near the court since 8 a.m., holding a streamer ‘Freedom to political prisoners!’. A group of youth activists also hanged out a white-red-white flag on the roof of an adjacent house and were detained for it.