International organizations indignant about arrest of Russian atomic physician
7- 13.10.2009, 12:48
International ecological human rights center Bellona takes control of the situation around arrest of Andrei Ozharovsky.
The famous ecological Bellona Foundation, whose expert atomic physician Andrei Ozharovsky was arrested in Belarus, sent an official request to Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov asking that his office look into the arrest of the Russian citizen.
The request, published on the NGO’s website says a representative of Russia’s consular mission to Belarus hasn’t met with Andrei Ozharovsky yet. Bellona notes that Ozharovsky was arrested for his intent to distribute at the hearing copies of a report entitled “Critical Notes on the State Environmental Impact Study of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant,” which he had co-authored.
Arrested Ozharovsky has not been given access to a lawyer.
It has become known today that the arrested Russian physician filed a complaint to the Hrodna region court. Radio Svaboda learnt this from editor of the Belarusian Ecological Portal Tatsyana Novikava. Ozharovsky will try to appeal against the decision of the Astravets court, in accordance with which he is serving 7-day arrest in the Astravets detention facility.
Under Belarusian law, the appeal of Andrei Ozharouski must be considered by the Hrodna region court within three days.
We remind that Andrei Ozharovsky was detained in the town of Astravets, where he arrived to take part in public consultations dedicated to a preliminary report on environmental impact assessment of the Belarusian nuclear plant. He was guarded to a local militia department, where he was seized 94 copies of printed materials titled “Critical Notes on the State Environmental Impact Study of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant”. According to Ozharovsky, he wasn’t spreading the printed materials at the moment of detention.
The Embassy of Russia has already filed a note of protest to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus. On October 12, the note was handed in to the MFA consular department to clear out the details of the incident.
