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Some 30 arrested during "silent" protests in Belarus, say rights defenders

 

Around 30 people were arrested in Belarus on Wednesday evening as police tried to suppress new demonstrations in a series of so-called silent protests held every Wednesday since June 8 within the framework of an anti-government campaign called “Revolution through Social Networks, according to human rights defenders.

Of them, 20 were apprehended in Minsk. Arrests were also known to be made in Brest, Belaazyorsk, Navapolatsk and Vawkavysk.

According to rights defender Anastasiya Loyka, all those grabbed in Minsk were taken to the Tsentralny district police station. Two legal minors were freed shortly afterward, while 17 people, including Russian national Anastasiya Vyarchenkova, were taken to the detention center on Akrestsina Street where they spent the night awaiting trial, Ms. Loyka said.

One young woman was rushed from the station to a hospital by ambulance, she said.

According to the Vyasna human rights group, more than 10 people were arrested near a night club in southeastern Minsk at 9 p.m. in a separate incident. The plainclothes policemen said that they suspected the people of being heavily drunk and took them to the Leninski district police station. Their further fate was not immediately known. // BelaPAN