Police arrested Aliaksandar Atroschankau, «Pagonia» emblem and European symbols

Democratic activist Aliaksandar Atroschankau was arrested late at night on October 9, in Minsk. Police officers burst into the apartment of democratic activist Aliaksandar Atroschankau located on the first storey (!) through a window and searched it. Office equipment, including a computer and information materials on the European March, EU flags and the Belarusian national emblem “Pagonia” made of plaster were withdrawn.

As Aliaksandar Atroschankau told press-center of Charter 97, the police said they had got an anonymous telephone call saying there was a dead body in the apartment. Nevertheless, the police was interested only in the computers.

It is obvious that the intrusion was politically motivated. Atroschankau left his cell phone on when the police burst in, and we could hear the police threatening him and demanding information materials on the European March. Then the phone was switched off…

The apartment was searched for three hours. Aliaksandar Atroschankau’s wife Dar’ya wasn’t allowed either to enter the apartment or to pass warm clothes to Aliaksandar.

The wife of Aliaksandar Atroschankau told press-center Charter’97 that he was taken to the Central district interior department.

Thus, authorities stick to arrests of the organizers of the European March, despite the appeals launched by the European Union to stop repressions and let the Belarusian citizens hold the March peacefully.