SHCHUCHYN, Belarus -- Police in the Belarusian city of Shchuchyn have briefly detained four activists from the Union of Poles in Belarus and confiscated recent issues of that group's Polish-language periodicals, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.
Meczislaw Jaskiewicz, Igor Bancer, Andrzej Pisalnik, and Andrzej Poczobut spent three hours in police custody on June 23 before being released.
Poczobut told RFE/RL that police confiscated the latest issues of the "Glos znad Niemna na uchodzstwie" newspaper and "Magazyn Polski."
Both periodicals are issued by the Union of Poles in Belarus -- an unregistered organization uniting members of the Polish minority in the country.
Police told the activists that they received information saying that materials with antigovernment content were in their possession and they were therefore detained.
According to police, experts must determine whether or not the periodicals' contents are antigovernment.
The activists claim their detentions and the confiscations are politically motivated actions.
Meczislaw Jaskiewicz, Igor Bancer, Andrzej Pisalnik, and Andrzej Poczobut spent three hours in police custody on June 23 before being released.
Poczobut told RFE/RL that police confiscated the latest issues of the "Glos znad Niemna na uchodzstwie" newspaper and "Magazyn Polski."
Both periodicals are issued by the Union of Poles in Belarus -- an unregistered organization uniting members of the Polish minority in the country.
Police told the activists that they received information saying that materials with antigovernment content were in their possession and they were therefore detained.
According to police, experts must determine whether or not the periodicals' contents are antigovernment.
The activists claim their detentions and the confiscations are politically motivated actions.