European Parliament president urges Belarusian government to release people arrested during police crackdown on demonstration in Minsk

• 27.03.2008, 18:27

The president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, has urged the Belarusian government to immediately release the people arrested during a police crackdown on a demonstration staged in Minsk on March 25 on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Belarusian National Republic.

"The use of violence by the Belarusian authorities against peaceful demonstrators and the harassment of independent journalists are in contradiction to the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression and is not compatible with democratic fundamental rights,” Mr. Poettering says in a statement issued on March 27.

"I strongly condemn the politically motivated detentions and the intervention against Belarusian citizens who are peacefully demonstrating their commitment to the values of freedom, democracy and human rights,” Mr. Poettering says. “The European Parliament expresses its solidarity with all those who defend freedom and democracy.”

Mr. Poettering expresses particular concern about the arrest of prominent artist Alyaksey Marachkin, whose exhibition he “had the honor to open during the Belarus Week celebrations in the European Parliament during the March Plenary Session in Strasbourg.”

The 67-year-old painter was sentenced to five days in jail on Tuesday on an obscene language charge.

Mr. Poettering also condemns the crackdown that the “KGB is reported to have started today on independent journalists from Belsat [television channel], Radio Racyja and the European Radio for Belarus.”