… Another arrest for Vinagradau, additional seven prison days for Artsybashau

• 2.03.2012, 21:40

Paval Vinagradau, the leader of Change (Zmena) movement, should have been released today after his 10-day arrest.

At 6 pm Paval’s family and friends gathered to meet him at the Center of isolation of offenders in Akrestsin street. They came with small gifts, plush toys, that were the cause of his arrest.

However, nobody came out to them. Having waited for more than an hour they tried to figure out where Paval might be, because according to the Center’s administration he was not in the building.

Later it became known that Vinagradau had been taken to a police station and then returned to Akrestsina after a new protocol had been written. The trial is scheduled for Monday.

Moreover, another activist of the movement Aliaksandar Artsybashau is reported to have got additional seven days of arrest for the action Pepper Root from President (Khren ot Prezidenta; in Russian, “pepper root” is a slang word for “nothing”). During the action jars with pepper root were given to people around Kamarouski market. Aliaksandar’s family weren’t informed about the new arrest term.

The young people were arrested for an action that they had organized in Minsk. They placed plush toys with political slogans opposite for the Government house.