“European Belarus” activists beaten up during detention

• 29.09.2008, 10:54

Activists of the civil campaign “European Belarus” who were detained yesterday before the protest rally against rigged results of the parliamentary ”election” are released.

There were three of them, not five as earlier reports said: Paval Kuryanovich, Kanstantsin Ivanou and Marta Majseenka. Kuryanovich and Majseenka were beaten during detention.

“When we were standing on the bus stop, I was called by name. I turned around and saw people in mufti. They called my name, surname, and said that they are criminal police officers, and they were to detain us. When I tried to phone, I was hit on the chest by a fist several times, my mobile phone was snatched. Marta was hit on the face by a fist, her arms were twisted. We were pushed into a microbus with shadowed windows and taken to the police department in Baraulyany. We were told that there that we had been detained for identification,” Paval Kuryanivich said.

The pro-democracy activists have spent in the police department about 5 hours. Then a policemen Hryb came and said that young people could be released, as people on October square started to disband.

The young activists will file a complaint to the prosecutor’s office on the fact of illegal detention.