Three arrested journalists released, Shumchanka remaining in custody
The three journalists who were arrested by police in Minsk on
Thursday have been released, while Anatol Shumchanka, leader of a small
business association called Perspektyva, remains in custody.
Mr.
Shumchanka, Ihar Karney, of the Belarus Service of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, Ales Sivy, of the private newspaper Narodnaya
Volya, and Natallya Kastsyukevich, of web portal tut.by, were
intercepted by police at about 12:30 p.m. while they were driving to the
Parking shopping center in downtown Minsk. Small business owners with
sole entrepreneur status across Belarus are staging a one-day strike
against the introduction of new certification rules for imported
clothing and footwear within the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan
and Russia.
“Police officers checked our passport data to make
sure that we weren’t wanted for some offenses and then told us to go
home,” Mr. Karney said in an interview with BelaPAN.
Thousands
of sole entrepreneurs in Minsk, Mahilyow, Homyel, Brest, Polatsk,
Kastsyukovichy, and Baranavichy are known to have gone on strike at the
suggestion of Perspektyva.
The Parking shopping center and
stalls selling goods other than food at the Zhdanovichy market just
outside the capital city were closed on Thursday morning. Mr. Shumchanka
participated in a rally held by about 400 protesters at the Zhdanovichy
market. After the rally was over, the Tsentralny district police
station’s deputy chief approached Mr. Shumchanka and announced that
police officers wanted to talk to him in their room at the marketplace.
However, after hearing that he was not being arrested, Mr. Shumchanka
said that he would not have any conversations with police officers and
drove away.