Vitsebsk activists detained for displaying banner (Photo)

The detention took place at 12.10 yesterday. Aliaksei Kishchuk and Stanislau Laurenau, members of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, were taken to the police station. Soon both guys were unavailable on the phone, and then they sent a text message that they would be tried on Monday, and before that they were placed in the detention center.

The event dedicated to the Day of solidarity with political prisoners was staged in the center of Vitsebsk. Aliaksei Kishchuk and Stanislau Laurenau displayed a banner with the word “Freedom!” and portraits of political prisoners. They did not have time to do anything else, as a few minutes later a police car appeared.

The territory of the city center is equipped with video cameras, and the banner was pretty big, so the protesters were arrested in the beginning, says the chairman of the city office of the Belarusian Popular Front Aliaksandr Kuzniatsou.

“At first he lied to me, saying that they had no such detainees. And then, when I pointed to the guys who were sitting in the duty room, the policeman said that I am not a relative, so he would not talk to me,” says Vitsebsk pro-democratic activist Piotr Ivanou who went to the police station to support the detained activists. However, the policeman on duty refused to tell him anything about the detainees.