Belarusian authorities claim Martin Uggla was behind “teddy bear assault”

Minsk answered the IIHF why the Swedish human rights activist was denied entry to Belarus.

The news was received from Radio Svaboda with a link to Svenska Dagbladet.

The human rights defender says the accusation was absurd, because he “was not in any way involved in the teddy bear attack”.

Martin Uggla, the head of the Swedish human rights organisation Östgruppen, has close contacts with democratic movements in Belarus. He was denied a Belarusian visa in 2006.

He was not allowed to enter Belarus, though he bought a ticket for a match of the Ice Hockey World Championship. The human rights activist had to return to Sweden at his cost. After that, he appealed to the Ice Hockey International Federation (IIHF) saying that it should demand explanations from Belarus.

According to Adam Steiss, a representative of the Ice Hockey International Federation, official Minsk claims Mr Uggla is under investigation for the incident on July 4, 2011, when a light plane piloted by two Swedish citizens crossed the Belarusian-Lithuanian border and dropped teddy bears with free speech leaflets over Minsk and Ivianets.

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