Lyavonty Chypurnykh, the deputy chair of the Brest city department of left party Fair World, was detained in the evening of October 3.
Radio Liberty learnt this from the chair of the party’s city department Lyudmila Dzyanusenka, who said that the activist had been detained when he was gathering signatures to hold the People's Assembly:
"Policemen said Chypurynykh had been handing out leaflets calling to an unauthorized event. Lyavonty was gathering signatures in his house and handing out invitations. Someone called police and he was detained. Lyavonty spent the night in a police station. He will be tried today. We are figuring out when the trial begins. We’re going to come and support him", Lyudmila Dzyanisenka said.
As Dzyanisenka adds, representatives of left parties have not been detained in Brest before:
"It's the first time when a representative of a left party has been detained in Brest. They have not bothered us before, but now, ahead of the People’s Assembly, they became more active", the woman says.
This is the first detention for the People's Assembly in Brest. Before, only people in Baranavichy were detained in the Brest region. On September 22, activist Syarhei Auchynnikau was fined 525,000 rubles for handing out leaflets. On September 29, Viktar Tsyapin was detained for leaflets with information about the People's Assembly. He will stand trial on October 6. On September 30, the local coordinator of People's Assembly, Viktar Myazyak, was detained in Baranavichy.
