55 minors were detained in Minsk

During the dispersal of a rally of the Belarusian opposition in Minsk, 55 minor citizens were detained on the night of March 24. This was announced on Sunday by a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus, RIA Novosti reports.

According to him, the age of the detainees is 20-25 years. The source did not specify the total number of detainees during the extensions of the opposition shares, including last Saturday.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Internal Affairs officially confirmed the detention of the leader of the Belarusian Opposition Social-Democratic Party of Gramad Alexander Kozulin, ITAR-TASS reports. The reason for the detention of Kozulin was the fact that during the opposition demonstration on March 25 in Minsk, “he called on the audience to follow the building of the united special receiver-distributor to release the offenders who were subjected to administrative arrest for participation in unauthorized events,” said Vitaliy Grinkevich, head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

He explained that "Kozulin entered a frank conflict with employees of the internal affairs bodies" when the police column stopped the police and began to conduct "explanatory work on the unlawfulness of the assembled actions." At the same time, as Grinkevich noted, Kozulin "deliberately, from hooligan motives, defeated the video camera of police officers."

Earlier, the Social Democratic Party "Gramada" filed an application for the disappearance of Alexander Kozulin. Then it turned out that he was kept in a pre -trial detention center of the city of Zhodino near Minsk.

On Sunday, the European Union demanded from the Belarusian authorities to free Kozulin. Austria, who presides in the EC, also condemned "the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators in Minsk" on behalf of the European community.

The United States also condemned the use by the authorities against demonstrators on Saturday in Minsk. The White House calls on the leadership of the country to free all the detainees, according to the official representative of the State Department of the United States, Sean McCormak.

"We urge the Belarusian authorities to refrain from further use of force against those who exercise their legitimate right to conduct meetings and (freedom) expression," the statement is indicated.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry called on the European Union and the USA to stop attempts to destabilize the situation in the country. “The EU and the USA are on the verge of anti -Belorian hysteria,” the press secretary of the ministry Andrei Popov says. “They either allow someone to mislead themselves or mislead the European and American public.”

The Foreign Ministry also claims that Alexander Kozulin called for the power overthrow of legal power and that the police were attacked by his supporters.

About 10 thousand people went to the streets of Minsk on Saturday. OMON dispersed the demonstration by applying rubber batons, smoke bombs and tear gas. There are wounded. Perhaps one person has been killed, the Charter'97 reports. According to official figures, 52 people were detained. Opposition sites report a few hundred arrested.