Russian human rights activist left Belarus

• 18.03.2011, 10:38

Russian human rights activist Andrey Yurov has fulfilled the demand of the Belarusian law-enforcement agencies to leave Belarus. However, he is going to appeal against this decision.

“Yurov has flied to Moscow from Belarus today. He fulfilled the demand to leave the country within 24 hours,” Valyantsin Stefanovich, the deputy head of Viasna Human Rights Centre, told Interfax-Zapad news agency on Friday.

He added that Yurov would appeal against the decision of the passports and visas service of the police department of Savetski district of Minsk. “He made an agreement with a Belarusian lawyer to do this,” the human rights defender said.

Stefanovich also noted that the Russian human rights activist “doesn’t agree that his is on the list of people banned from entering Belarus”. “They were going to open a criminal case against Yurov under article 371 (illegal border-crossing to the Republic of Belarus), but Yurov said he hadn’t been informed he was on the black list, so he had entered Belarus on a regular basis,” Stefanovich said.

As previously informed, Yurov was detained in Minsk on Wednesday. He spent the night in the police department of Savetski district of Minsk. In the morning, the passports and vises service of the police department took a decision that he should leave Belarus within 24 hours.