Pickets of solidarity with political prisoner Kazulin banned in Minsk

The Minsk local authorities forbade holding of pickets of solidarity with political prisoner Alyaksandr Kazulin, former presidential candidate.
As BelaPAN learnt from Syarhei Martselau, an applicant for picket, member of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada), the official letter of the Minsk city executive committee doesn’t explain the reasons for a ban. “The answer just says a picket is not permitted. It’s not said there why it is forbidden,” S. Martselau told.
The party activists planned to hold pickets of solidarity with political prisoner Alyaksandr Kazulin opposite a travelling tent show on Arlouskaya Street on 6-7 July. The pickets were to be dedicated to the second anniversary of the law proceeding over the politician.
It is worth noting that a site opposite the tent show on Arlouskaya Street is on the list of sites, where mass actions are permitted.
It should be reminded that on 13 July 2006 former presidential candidate A. Kazulin was sentenced to 5 and ½ years of imprisonment for organising a mass protest action against rigging the results of the presidential elections. The politician serves his punishment in the Vitsebsk minimum security penal colony “Vitsba-3”. The European Union, the United States and a number of international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, recognised Kazulin a political prisoner and demand to release him.