Police stop handing out information bulletins

The police in Mahilou hindered to hand out the bulletin “The Social Democrat”.

Ales Siardziukou, an activist of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada), was forcefully taken out of the car parts market where he was handing out the party's bulletins on October 4.

The activist had spread about 50 bulletins when three policemen came up to him and asked what he was doing, Viasna human rights centre reports.

“The policemen took a copy, said the bulletin didn't have imprints, though it has, and ordered me to leave the territory of the market. They also wrote down my passport information. I said I would be arrested and bulletins would be seized if I appeared at the market again,” Ales Siardziukou says.

The activist says the name of the main policeman, who talked to him, is Uladzimir Dantsou. Siardziukou notes the police officers blocked the entrance to the market and remained there until he left.

The bulleting “The Social Democrat” was devoted to the campaign “For reducing the customs clearing fees for cars imported to Belarus from Europe and the US” launched by the social democrats of Mahilou. All articles in the bulleting were about the high cost of customs clearance for used cars from Europe and the US. The authors also noted that an average Belarusian cannot afford such cars.