Today Alyaksandr Milinkevich’s electioneering agent, a leader of the United Civil Party Anatol Lyabedzka has held a meeting with voters in Mahilyou. It was absolutely legal, however, he was sentenced to a fine of 50 basic units (1 mln 550 thousand Belarusian rubles) by the court of Leninski district of Mahilyou. The politician was charged with participation in unsanctioned assembly and insubordination to policemen’s demands. The head of the regional campaign headquarters, Uladzimir Shantsau (Vladimir Shantsev), was sentenced to 15 days of arrest. For organizing the meeting of Syarhei Kalyakin, the leader of the single democratic candidate headquarters with voters, Shantsau was charged with holding an unsanctioned assembly. The courts have violated all procedural rules. Anatol Lyabedzka was tried without a clerk of court, and both of them were tried without lawyers, though they demanded to call in a lawyer.
Today Brest policemen have detained an activist of the team of the single candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Milinkevich, Dzyanis Turchanyak. The campaigner runs a car with a board with Milinkevich’s portrait on its roof. There is a slogan “For Milinkevich!” there. Policemen could not charge the driver with any offence, but his initiative is very effective, as the board attracts attention.
On the eve of International Women`s Day on 8 March 2006, Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of Jill Carroll and Rim Zeid, held hostage in Iraq, and for six other women journalists who are imprisoned in Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Maldives, Nepal and Rwanda.
Since March 1 a penalty for the well-known politician Mikola Statkevich, sentenced to three years of liberty restriction for organizing a protest against rigged results of the elections and referendum in 2004, has been hardened. Now Statkevich is in fact imprisoned, as he cannot leave the premises of the special settlement in the town of Baranavichy.
Amnesty International is concerned for the welfare of Anton Filimonov, aged 16, currently being held in a prison in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Anton Filimonov has heart and kidney problems, and Amnesty International is concerned that further detention in the absence of appropriate medical treatment will seriously affect his health. The organization is also concerned that his arrest may be a pretext and that the real reason for his detention is to pressurize him into confessing to the murder of his mother or to force him to incriminate other relatives, and that he may be being subjected to psychological pressure and ill-treatment while in detention.
Today Alyaksandr Milinkevich’s electioneering agent, a leader of the United Civil Party Anatol Lyabedzka has held a meeting with voters in Mahilyou. The meeting was held in the centre of the city, on the square in front of the city executive committee. Though it is an eve of the holiday, several hundreds of people gathered on the square. Lyabedzka was talking with voters for about an hour and a half, and then he was released. At the moment he is standing trial allegedly for holding “an unsanctioned assembly”, though the politician acted in line with the elections legislation. We offer you some pictures of Lyabedzka’s meeting with voters of Mahilyou.
The head of Homel regional HQ of the single democratic candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Milinkevich, an agent of a candidate Uladzimir Katsora has received an answer of the chairperson of the Central Election Commission Lidziya Yarmoshyna to his request concerning places where printed campaign materials can be distributed. As U. Katsora told to the Charter’97 press center, in her letter of the CEC chairperson Lidziya Yarmoshyna stated that “printed campaign materials can be disseminated freely at the meetings with voters, in the places allocated for placing campaign materials and outside those places”.
The speech of the democratic presidential hopeful Alyaksandr Milinkevich was broadcast on First National Radio channel with outtakes yesterday. Regime’s censors have eliminated quotations of outrageously illiterate words by Alyaksandr Lukashenka at the so-called “All-Belarusian assembly”, relating to Belarusian first pressman Frantsysk Skaryna. We would like to offer the text of the outtake.
Vladislav Kaskiv, leader of Ukraine`s Pora party, on Monday urged the Ukrainian authorities to take a tougher position on Belarus. Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv four days after his expulsion from a Minsk airport, Mr. Kaskiv suggested that Kyiv suspend Ukraine`s official involvement in the CIS presidential election observation mission in Belarus and ban high-ranking Belarusian officials from entering Ukraine before the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) makes public its conclusions on this month`s presidential poll.
Yesterday activists of the team of the singe candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Milinkevich caught two members of the team of a presidential candidate, Liberal Democratic Party Syarhei Hajdukevich busy with unseemly deeds. By the supermarket “Valgagradski” in Pravda Avenue they were tearing off posters of Alyaksandr Milinkevich and pasted informational materials of Hajdukevich above. The Charter’97 press center has been informed about that by an agent of the candidate A. Milinkevich, Valyantsina Svyatskaya.
Belarus` central election commission has denied observer status to Nikita Belykh, leader of Russia`s Union of Right Forces (SPS), and Vladimir Ryzhkov, a rare liberal independent in the State Duma (lower house of Russia`s federal parliament).
On March 7 in the premises of Brest city elections headquarters of the presidential hopeful Alyaksandr Milinkevich hidden microphones were found. A day earlier the head of the city elections headquarters Dzmitry Shymanski got an anonymous letter from people who called themselves officers of the KGB (State Security Committee). In the letter the KGB officers warned about possible provocations against activists of Brest election headquarters.
Yesterday in the evening police officers withdrew illegally 28 thousand copies of agitation materials from Viktar Karniyenka, charge d’affaires of Alyaxandr Milinkevich. The police didn’t like the phrase printed on the leaflets - “Milinkevich is future president”
Washington-based National Democratic Institute has published a statement on situation in Belarus. As the chairman of the director’s council, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, “The National Democratic Institute condemns attempts of the Belarusian authorities to deny its citizens realization of their fundamental right, to carry out observation at the presidential elections on March 19”.
It is highly probable that the powers will try to block our web-site before the election. We are ready to offer your alternative sources of hot news in case our web-site is unavailable.
Internet group of support and Alyaxandr Milinkevich’s web site announced the start of the Internet campaign “Musicians For Freedom”. The long-term action is aimed at support for the democratic opposition candidate for the President’s post.
Internet portal BRANDING.BY declared the first Belarusian entertainment Internet television had been launched - Zebra Internet Television. ZebraITV is based on flash-technology - one of the most popular technologies of the modern Internet. The majority of the programs are updated daily. 5-6 entertaining programs can be viewed per day; moreover, after a program gets online, users can define the time to see it themselves. Right now ZebraITV transmits Russian programs, but soon Belarusian programs are to be added to the broadcasting network.
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