Famous poets arrested for speaking Belarusian in Minsk
Famous Belarusian poets, including Ales Turovich, Serge Minskevich and Zmitser Vishnyou were yesterday arrested by police in the Yanka Kupala gardens a couple of hours before the opposition staged a protest against Belarus's incorporation into Russia.
Today they stood trial and was convicted for "petty hooliganizm". Police witnesses testified that the poets had allegedly cursed, drunk vodka and disobeyed orders from officers. Ales Turovich and Serge Minskevich were sentenced to three days of arrest. Zmitser Vishnyou was penalized with a fine of Br175,000 ($90).
Zmitser Vishnyou commented on this to the European Radio for Belarus as follows:
“We were speaking Belarusian. This somewhat provoked the officers. We were not doing anything wrong. We had two Belarusian artists walking together with us and speaking Russian, and they were not detained. Besides, Serge Minskevich was tackled on in a harsh way. He was transported in handcuffs".
