Student Persecution in Belarus Persists

On the 22nd of December, Belarusian Students gathered in the BSA (the National Belarusian Student Union and member of ESIB) offices in order to celebrate Christmas.

At around 11pm, as the party was coming to an end, militia, special troops and several civilians crashed the party armed with video cameras and asked all present to disconnect their mobile phones. No search warrant was provided despite repeated requests from the students.

A computer hard drive and copies of the newspaper “Tankmen” along with compact discs of the “Nie zahaniajsia !” campaign were confiscated.

All 29 students present were taken to the police station, although no purpose for detention was ever provided. The police took copies of the students’ passports and persecuted them with questions about BSA and the reasons for their gathering. The students were finally released at around 3am. However, two of these students were detained far longer and given 5 days arrest, on counts of hooliganism!

ESIB is extremely concerned by the situation and strongly supports BSA and its’ representatives. More news will appear shortly.