Arbitrary detention legal, says Prosecutor's Office

The detention of activist Iliya Dabratvor was legal, says a reply from Minsk Frunzenski District Prosecutor's Office.

On October 29, 2013 Iliya Dabratvor was detained with his son Yausei, 8, at a Dziady memorial action. According to Dabratvor, employees of the Frunzenski district police department failed to specify the reasons for the detention. As a result, he was interrogated and released without charges.

In his complaint to the Prosecutor's Office of Frunzenski district, the activist draws attention to the fact that in his case there were no grounds for detention. It is even more difficult to justify the detention of a minor child. Iliya Dabratvor believes that policemen violated his constitutional and procedural rights, and therefore he filed his complaint with a request to investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice.

The Prosecutor of Frunzenski district A. A. Biaspaly believes that there are no grounds for launching a probe. “As your request implies, the Frunzenski district police officers did not charge you with an administrative offense and, accordingly, no administrative procedures were started," says the reply.

In accordance with Art. 9.5 of the Administrative Code, administrative procedures are initiated from the moment of the administrative detention of an individual. Iliya Dabratvor emphasizes this in his letter of complaint to the Prosecutor of Minsk.

It should be noted that the activist is appealing another arbitrarily detention – on 23 January he was detained by the employees of Tsentralny police department.