Police in Brest return seized printed material to opposition activists

Police in Brest have returned the copies of a bulletin about the eviction of opposition activist Zhanna Abramava that were seized from her supporters at the end of last year.

Forty-nine copies of the bulletin were seized from human rights defender Raman Kislyak and Yury Bakur, an activist of an opposition youth group called Malady Front, on December 30 when the two were distributing them to passers-by near the office of the Brest Regional Executive Committee.

After collecting the copies on Wednesday, Mr. Kislyak passed them out in the city's central square.
It is still important for people to know about Ms. Abramava's case because no final decision has yet been made in the case, Mr. Kislyak told BelaPAN.

According to him, police did not interfere with distribution this time. "What's more, I gave a copy to three policemen who were passing by," Mr. Kislyak said.

The bulletin was about the plight of Ms. Abramava, her mother and six-year-old sister who were left homeless by a court order. On November 25, the Maskowski District Court in Brest ordered the eviction of the woman from a government-owned apartment at the request of the local housing authority, which claimed that the woman unlawfully occupied it following the death of her grandmother in 2005.

On February 5, the Brest Regional Court annulled the ruling of the Maskowski District Court and ordered it to reconsider the eviction suit.