Five participants of the ZUBR movement were detained minutes ago at the Sovietsky district court of Minsk and were delivered to the local police station. The arrest order was given by deputy head of district police Gurenkov. ZUBRs came over to the court in order to uphold their friends, who stand trial today.

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ZUBR activist, human rights defender Dmitry Borodko was sentenced by judge Oksana Relayeva to 5 days of arrest. As far as Dmitry Borodko was detained half an hour before the start of the March 25 action near the Yakub Kolas square, the law-enforcers, in order to explain their arbitrary actions, charged Borodko with “hooliganism” (article 156 of Administrative code). The human rights defender was accused of speaking foul language. Witnesses for the prosecution were the law-enforcers who saw him for the very first time in court. Their testimonies were contradictory and confusing to all.

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Chairman of the BPF Party “Adradjenne” Vintsuk Vyachorka was sentenced by the Sovietsky district court of Minsk to 10 days of arrest. The verdict was passed by judge Ruslan Kozodaev. The politician was found guilty of violating article 167/2 of the Administrative code – organizing unsanctioned events. The very fact that the BPF leader received 10 days of arrest instead of 15, is explained by the judge by Vyachorka’s call to go home to the protesters.

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Krichev district council once again refused to provide the local independent newspaper “Volny Gorad” with a legal address, which is the necessary condition for its registration.

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ZUBR movement activist Evgeny Afnagel was sentenced by the Sovietsky district court of Minsk to 15 days of arrest. The verdict was passed by judge Oksana Relyaeva. Evgeny Afnagel was found guilty of violating art.167/2 – repeated involvement in unsanctioned events. The young man was detained during opposition’s rally “Freedom Day”. Judge of the Sovietsky district court of Minsk Natalya Skugareva ruled to sentence the activist of the ZUBR movement Igor Vinnikov to 5 days of arrest. Igor Vinnikov was found guilty of violating article 164/1 of the Administrative code – participation in unsanctioned events. This was the first verdict, passed against the participants and organizers of the March 25 rally, marking the 85th anniversary since Belarusian People’s Republic’s proclamation. Trials over the rest of the detainees are still underway.

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“Reporters Without Frontiers” and the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) have called for the investigation into the disappearance of Dmitri Zavadski, a Belarus cameraman for the Russian TV station ORT, to be reopened.

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Belarusian authorities intend to reinforce ideological activities in the country. “Rosbalt” was told in the press-service of the Belarusian president that Alexander Lukashenko said it on Tuesday, commenting on staff reshuffles at the top posts in state structures and educational institutions.

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Commission for human rights, national relations and media of the “house of representatives” ruled to uphold presidential amendments to the law on assemblies, meetings, street rallies, demonstrations and pickets. Meantime, MPs turned down the variant, proposed by the member of the “Republic” parliamentary group, general Valery Frolov.

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The Foreign Ministry and Ministry for emergency situations of Belarus embarked on elaborating the mechanism of delivering humanitarian assistance to Iraq.

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The Freedom Day was traditionally marked this year: not massively but with arrests. ZUBR movement’s activists Evgeny Afnagel, Igor Vinnikov, Tatiana Elovaya, Denis Dashinsky and Sergei Buevets were arrested in no time after the end of the action. Dmitry Borodko and Leonid Novitsky, ZUBR activists from Borisov, were apprehended minutes before the action. ZUBR coordinator Timofei Dranchuk was captured a few hours before the start of the rally for his part in last year’s action, marking BPR’s anniversary. They also arrested organizers of the action – BPF “Adradjenne” head Vintsuk Vyachorka and Vladimir Kishkurno. In total, they detained 15. Yesterday night all underage people were set free. The rest stayed overnight in Okrestina confinement jail. Today they will stand trial in the Sovietsky court of Minsk.

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