Detention of anarchists
At about 6 a.m. on 3 September, a group of anarchists was detained by the police in connection with the arson in the Russian Embassy in Belarus. One of the detainees was interrogated about the incident near the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Minsk, at the territory of which Molotov cocktails had been pelted, and was released at about 7 p.m. the same day. Mikalai Dziadok, Aliaksandr Frantskevich, Ihar Istazarau, Valeryia Khotsina, Anton Laptsionak, Siarhei Sliusarau and Aliaksei Zhynherouski are still under arrest in the detention center in Akrestin Street in Minsk and are being interrogated within about the arson.
The young people were jointly renting a flat in one of the Minsk districts. Early in the morning the door bell rang in their flat and one of the young men opened the door. Law enforcement officers in civilian clothes burst into the apartment and transported those who were in it to the Organized Crime Department of the Interior Ministry of Belarus for interrogation. The apartment was searched; five computers, two laptops, mobile phones, money, posters and magazines were confiscated.
The maximal detention term without arraignment is 72 hours in Belarus, but the prosecutor can prolong this term up to 10 days. The law enforcement agencies still haven’t commented on the situation.
On 4 September, the police searched the apartment of another anarchist and interrogated him. Moreover, the flats of the detainees’ parents were searched as well.
The incident near the Russian diplomatic mission in Minsk took place in the evening on 30 August. At 10.20 p.m. officers of the Safety Department of the Interior Ministry saw that a service vehicle Mazda-3 that stood on the territory of the Embassy was burning. A glass bottle with the remaining of combustible mixture and fragments of a broken glass bottle with the remaining of the fuse were found there. A criminal case has been instigated on this fact.
On 2 September the internet resources belarus.indymedia.org and belarus.avtonom.org published a statement saying that anarchists take upon themselves the responsibility for the attack on the Russian Embassy in Minsk. ‘By this action we express our anger and protest against the arrests of social activists who stand up for Khimki Forest in Moscow’, stated the authors.
The statement was disproved by Russian activists who stand up for Khimki Forest. They called it a provocation.
