Organizing Committee of Belarusian Intelligentsia Assembly Demands Liberation of People’s March Organizers :: Charter'97 :: News

Organizing committee of the Belarusian Intelligentsia Assembly passed an address to the head of the Minsk city court and procuracy with a call to release the arrested organizers of the People’s March “For Better Life!” Andrei Sannikov, Ludmila Gryaznova, Dmitry Bondarenko and Leonid Malakhov. All four convicts are delegates of the intelligentsia’s Assembly and must therefore take part in its session.

The initiative was proposed by the co-chairmen of the Assembly’s organizing committee Vladimir Kolas, Aleksei Marachkin and Aleksei Korol. Here’s what Mr.Kolas said:

“On behalf of the organizing committee we forwarded the letters to the Minsk prosecutor Kulik and chair of the city court Ardzyak. We informed them that Sannikov, Gryaznova, Bondarenko and Malakhov are delegates of our Assembly and were sentenced to arrests for organizing the People’s March. As far as the rally was a peaceful one, they were sentenced against law. We plead to liberate them, so that they could engage in the Assembly’s meeting”.

Co-chairmen of the organizing committee hopes that the head of court and prosecutor will take their plea into account. A few years ago they set free Lyavon Borschevsky, who engaged in the BPF Congress.

The Belarusian Intelligentsia Assembly will be convene on March 16 in the Palace of culture “Sukno” of Minsk. Around 800 delegates will discuss political, economic and cultural situation in Belarus, drafting a special resolution.