Alyaksey Pikulik, the academic director of the Vilnius-based Belarusian Institute of Strategic Studies (BISS), was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct in Minsk on May 31.
According to the political analyst’s lawyer, he was brought to the detention center on Akrestsina Street and was likely to stand trial on the charge in the Tsentralny District Court on Friday. No other details were immediately known.
Mr. Pikulik, a professor at European University in St.Petersburg, has been unable to travel abroad after police took away his passport on April 6.
On that day, road traffic police pulled over Mr. Pikulik’s car in Minsk and ordered him to drive to the city’s Tsentralny district police station for an identification procedure. His passport and iPad were seized as police officers said that the passport may have been forged.
On May 11, Mr. Pikulik visited the police department, where he was told that the passport would be examined for one more month.
