Journalist cynically detained ahead of Freedom Day

• 25.03.2011, 2:22

Independent journalist Alyaksandr Asiptsou, detained in Mahilou on March 24, has been sentenced to three days of administrative arrest for “disorderly conduct”.

As colonel lieutenant Alyaksandr Pataranka, the deputy head of the Leninski district police department, told journalists and human rights activists, Asiptsou had been detained by officers of patrol and inspection service under article 17.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences for urinating in public.

Opposition members from Mahilou doubt Asiptsou could urinate in public near his house. At 2:00 pm, he was to attend a sitting of the juvenile commission on the case of Hanna Shkadun, a participant of a picket of solidarity on January 16. Activists regard the arrest of Asiptsou as an attempt to prevent him from covering mass events carried out by the opposition on occasion of an anniversary of declaration of independence of the Belarusian Democratic Republic.