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Opposition politicians urge EU, USA to demand release of activist Dzyanisaw

A group of opposition politicians have urged the European Union and the United States to push for the release of United Civic Party member Dzyanis Dzyanisaw.

Mr. Dzyanisaw, a youth who spent days in the opposition tent camp on Minsk's Kastrychnitskaya Square after last March's presidential election, was arrested in Homyel last month and is facing a charge of "organizing and preparing group actions that seriously violate public peace." He is currently held in a pretrial detention center in Vitsyebsk.

"We are calling on the European Union's ambassadors, the governments of European countries and the United States to take appropriate measures that will lead to the release of political prisoners in general and Dzyanis Dzyanisaw in particular," the petition says.

The petitioners note that Mr. Dzyanisaw's arrest "is evidence that the authorities have opened yet another political case with a view to stifling the development of the pro-democracy movement."

As Katsyaryna Tkachenka, spokeswoman for the United Civic Party (UCP), told BelaPAN, the leaders of the UCP and the Belarusian Party of Communists have already put their signatures to the petition. As soon as other opposition leaders do the same, the petition will be delivered to the embassies of EU countries and the United States in Minsk.

The charge against the UCP member could stem from his arrest in Vitsyebsk last summer. Mr. Dzyanisaw and Tatsyana Yelavaya were grabbed by police for passing out leaflets titled "Riot" during an open-air concert staged in the city's Summer Amphitheater on June 17. A "Bunt" banner appeared on the roof of the Yakub Kolas National Academic Drama Theater in Vitsyebsk on June 19.