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All nine people arrested outside jail in Minsk released without charge

 

All the nine people who were arrested Wednesday outside a jail in Minsk were released without a charge later in the day.

Opposition activist Yury Rubtsow, who was just released after serving a three-day jail sentence, and eight other people who were meeting him outside the detention center on Akrestsina Street in Minsk were arrested by police at about 2:40 p.m.

Those arrested included Pavel Vinahradaw, leader of Zmena (Change), the youth wing of the "Tell the Truth!" movement; Vyachaslaw Pyashko, a reporter for the private newspaper Novy Chas; freelance journalist Anastasiya Reznikava; and oppositions activists Aksana Stsyapanava, Leanid Kulakow, Maryna Tsitova, Yuliya Sakalova and Volha Mikalaychyk.

The 52-year-old Rubtsow, a resident of Homyel and a member of the Independent Union of Electronic Industry Workers (REP), had been given the sentence for wearing a T-shirt featuring the words “Lukashenka Go!”

According of one of the arrested, they were apprehended at the request of the chief of the detention center after journalists started filming Mr. Rubtsow who walked out of the jail wearing the same T-shirt.

All the nine people were taken to the Maskowski district police station.

Mr. Rubtsow was the first to get out of the police station, but he already had no T-shirt on.

Mr. Vinahradaw was the last to be released. //BelaPAN