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Young opposition activist arrested in Minsk for displaying white-red-white flag

A young opposition activist was arrested Saturday in downtown Minsk after he displayed a whiter-red-white flag.

As his associate told the opposition news site charter97.org, Mr. Palyakow, who was holding the flag in his hands, was standing together with his friends near a stage that had been put up on Nyamiha Street on the occasion of the 2014 World Ice Hockey Championship in Minsk.

“Two AMAP [special task police] men came up to us and asked us to put the flag away and we obeyed them,” the associate said. “However, the same officers came up to us again some time later and ordered Alyaksandr to go with them. We waited for him for about an hour and then he managed to phone us to say that he was being charged with disorderly conduct under Article 17.1 of the Civil Offenses Code for allegedly molesting passers-by and yelling obscenities. He is to stand trial tomorrow.”

Mr. Palyakow, a Belarusian activist of the Russian-based outlawed National Bolshevik Party (Nazbol), served out a 10-day jail sentence on a charge of disorderly conduct earlier this month following his arrest in a police hunt for Nazbol activists to punish them for a demonstration against politically motivated persecution and prevent any protests during the May 9-25 World Ice Hockey Championship.

On May 4, Nazbol activists displayed a banner saying, "You Won`t Manage to Jail Everybody!" on Independence Avenue in Minsk to protest the jailing of opposition activists in the run-up to the tournament. //BelaPAN