Belarus: Prisoners of conscience

Index Number: EUR 49/009/1997
Date Published: 29 July 1997
Categories: Belarus, Europe And Central Asia

Pavel Sheremet, Dimitry Zavadsky and Yaroslav Ovchinnikov, three members of a Russian television crew: The above were detained on 22 July 1997 in Belarus by border guards after filming an unguarded section of the border, but were then released. On 26 July 1997 they were again detained. No official charges have yet been brought against them but it is reported that they will be charged with illegal border-crossing and possibly espionage.