Russia's Embassy: Not first time when Russian citizens arrested in Minsk

The Embassy of Russia comments for charter97.org on the arrest of ecologist Andrei Ozharovsky.

Vladimir Marchukov, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Belarus, noted:

“It's not a secret that it is not the first case of arrest of Russian citizens in Minsk.

Citizen of the Russian Federation Andrei Ozharovsky was arrested in Minsk yesterday and tried. A consul from our embassy attended the trial. He received a copy of the court decision saying Ozharovsky was sentenced to 10 days in custody for swearing. He was taken into custody at 11:20 a.m. yesterday and will be released on July 28. Our consul talked to Ozharovsky, who asked to informed his wife about the incident. He did not have other desires,” Vladimir Marchukov said.

We remind Russian nuclear physicist Andrei Ozharovski was sentenced to 10 days in custody on July 18. The trial was held in the evening after the end of the workday and human rights activists left the court building.

Ecologist Tatyana Novikava, a coordinator of the Belarusian anti-nuclear campaign, was given 5 days in custody yesterday. Mikhail Matskevich, a coordinator of the monitoring group at the Centre for Legal Transformation, received 3 days in custody.

Human rights activists planned to convey an appeal to the Russian Embassy against signing the general contract for construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Nevertheless, the contract was signed during Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Minsk and ecologists were thrown behind bars.