Ukrainians and Belarusians Went On Hunger Strike In Prison :: Charter'97 :: News

Ukrainian citizens detained during the opposition protest in Minsk, as well as three Belarusians, leader of the Young Front Zmitser Dashkevich, Syarhei Lisichonak and the head of the Freedom Party Syarhei Vysotski went on hunger strike, which is to be ended only after release.

As the Ukrainian “National Alliance” informs, on Thursday the leader of this organization, Ihor Huz, called to Kyiv and informed about the hunger-strike. Huz used the phone of the Ukrainian consul, who visited the detainees. As said by Huz, the Ukrainians have started the hunger strike because the Belarusian law-enforcers had violated their rights grossly, the Interfax informs.

On Wednesday three of the five Ukrainian citizens detained during the unsanctioned opposition meeting, were sentenced to 10 days of arrest, one of them was sentenced to 15 days of arrest.

The consul brought articles of daily necessity to Ukrainian citizens, and gave them the opportunity to call home. The citizens of Ukraine told the Ukrainian diplomat about their disagreement with the ruling of the court, and forwarded their letters to their families.

As we have informed, during the protest rally the “Chernobyl Path” in Minsk 5 citizens of Ukraine, 13 citizens of Belarus, and 14 citizens of Russia were detained. Among them were activists of the youth branchs of Yabloko, Union of the Right Forces and “Marching Without Putin”, a journalist of the “Russian Newsweek” Alexei Ametov and reporter of the “Moskovskiy Komsomolets” newspaper Mikhail Romanov. The journalists were sentenced to 10 and 8 days of arrest respectively. Other arrested in the rally were sentenced to the terms from 10 to 15 days of administrative arrest.

On Thursday an unsanctioned demonstration took place in Moscow in front of he Belarusian Embassy. Activists protested against detention of Russian citizens in Minsk. The rally was staged by the members of the parties “Yabloko”, the Union of Right Forces and other organizations, who demanding to release their fellow activists.