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United Civic Party urges head of OSCE Office in Minsk to visit opposition activists held in KGB detention center

The United Civic Party (UCP) has petitioned Benedikt Haller, head of the OSCE Office in Minsk, to visit the activists held in the detention center of the Committee for State Security (KGB) after the opposition's post-election street protest on December 19, BelaPAN said.

"We are very worried by the condition of Uladzimir Nyaklyayew and Andrey Sannikaw who were beaten up during the arrest, as well as our party's leader, Anatol Lyabedzka, who went on hunger strike when he was apprehended," UCP Deputy Chairman Lew Marholin said in the letter to Mr. Haller.

"Our party's members care about their fates and are concerned by the fact that the defense counsel was not allowed to visit Nyaklyayew for eight days after his arrest on December 19," the letter said.

Tony Lloyd, who led the short-term OSCE observer mission in Belarus' election, said in Minsk on December 20 that the OSCE had asked the Belarusian authorities to provide information about the whereabouts of the arrested presidential candidates and their detention conditions.
Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, head of the OSCE/ODIHR long-term election observation mission, promised that the OSCE Office in Minsk would continue dealing with the matter.