Belarus Crackdown

The Vyasna (Spring) human rights center in Belarus says police and the Committee for State Security (KGB) have detained several administrators of Belarusian opposition online communities.

Raman Pratasevich, Andrey Tkachyou, Syarhey Byaspaly, and Paval Yeutsikhiyeu were reported detained in Minsk, while Aleh Shramuk was arrested in the eastern city of Vitsebsk.

Vyasna and relatives of the young men said their apartments were searched and some of their computers were confiscated.

The administrators were held in custody for several hours, questioned regarding their online activities, and all but one of them released.

Yeutsikhiyeu and Tkachyou were sentenced to five and seven days in jail, respectively, for what was described as "minor hooliganism."

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) representative on media freedom, Dunja Mijatovic, has asked the Belarusian authorities to drop charges against a blogger.

Mijatovic's appeal was for Anton Surapin, who faces up to seven years in prison for uploading photos of teddy bears that had been dropped by plane into Belarus.

Surapin was arrested last month after posting photos of bears dropped from a Swedish plane in the Minsk area accompanied by texts supporting Belarusian dissidents and the country’s opposition.

Belarus expelled the Swedish ambassador last week and announced on August 8 it was withdrawing all staff from the Belarusian Embassy in Stockholm over the incident.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry also told Stockholm to withdraw its diplomats in Minsk.