All activists of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Hramada" (BSDP) arrested in Brest over Tuesday’s World War II ceremony were released without charges later in the day.
At about 3 p.m., nine BSDP activists arrived at the Brest Fortress Memorial and unfurled flags of the BSDP and the Belarusian Free Trade Union to mark the 70th anniversary of the war’s start and remember its victims.
They laid flowers at the memorial's eternal flame and observed a minute's silence before six of them were arrested by police and taken to the Leninski district police department.
Among those arrested were Valyantsin Lazarenkaw, deputy chair of the BSDP’s Brest regional chapter, and Hanna Kanyus, leader of the party’s Brest city chapter.
The activists were interviewed and released at about 5:45 p.m.
"I feel ashamed that in our country, which suffered so much in World War II, people are persecuted for laying flowers at memorials to remember the horrible war’s victims," Ms. Kanyus told BelaPAN.
BSDP activists held similar ceremonies in Baranavichy, Belaazyorsk, Drahichyn and Pruzhany, all in the Brest region, on September 1.
