Riot police raid office of European Belarus
Riot police raided the Minsk office of an opposition group
called European Belarus on Wednesday evening, claiming that they had
been tipped off about drugs in the apartment.
“We first saw through a window police grabbing our associate,” European Belarus activist Alyaksandr Vyalitchanka told BelaPAN.
“Three minutes later, riot police bulged in the apartment. It turned
out that they had seized the keys to the apartment from our associate.
They said that they were searching for drugs.”
The riot police
found banners and leaflets in support of imprisoned former presidential
candidate Andrey Sannikaw, who chairs European Belarus, as well as
European Belarus flags. “After that, all the eight people who were there
at the time were driven to the Savetski district police station. The
police videoed and fingerprinted us. They also ordered us to provide
explanations as to what we had been doing in the apartment, put down our
names and freed us without a charge.”
"The police seized the
banners, leaflets and flags but did not ask us to sign any report on the
seizure," noted Mr. Vyalitchanka.