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Hrodna Leninski Court rehabilitated the editor of Glos znad Niemna newspaper who
had been fired by the organizational board of the newspaper’s founder, Union of Poles in the Republic of Belarus, in accordance with the rules of the organization’s statute. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice found incompetent the union’s last assembly, at which the new head of the organization was elected. (13-MAY-2005)

According to Eugeniusz Wappa, chief editor of Niva weekly, on 11 May the procurator’s office of Bialystok, presented to the accused members of the program board of Niva weekly proposals of so called “conditional punishment”. After they refused to take the blame, the judge decided the case would be considered at court. (13-MAY-2005)

Andrei Klimau, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the 13th Convocation, is kept in investigative isolator since 22 April. The investigation accuses him in organization of a street action on 25 March that allegedly led to mass riot. (13-MAY-2005)

In Moscow Basmanny Court punished participants of the protest action against the imprisonment of Chrnobyl Way action participants in Republic of Belarus. Six Moscow protestors were sentenced to different terms of arrest, one was fined. (13-MAY-2005)

The active investigative measures were renewed on the case of the disappearance of Dzmitry Zavadski, cameraman of the Russian ORT TV channel. On the solicitation of Hary Pahaniaila, defense lawyer of Zavadski’s relatives, the investigation searches for the body in the towns of Orsha and Krupki. The General Procurator’s Office of Republic of Belarus tells nothing about the details of this search, referring to the secret of investigation. At the same time, the commemorative actions dedicated to Iury Zakhranka, are dispersed by riot squad police. (15-MAY-2005)

On 26 April in Minsk the traditional Chernobyl Way action took place in Minsk. Despite the peaceful nature of the action, the riot squad police acted violently. They dispersed the action and detained Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian citizens, most of whom were imprisoned afterwards. During the detention they seriously injured wrist to under-aged boy. (15-MAY-2005)

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday 11th May, a meeting with Reverend Terasawa, the Buddhist monk of the Nipponzan Myohoji order working in support of world peace, took place at the headquarters of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. (13-MAY-05)

– We want governments to adopt transparent, comprehensive, and verifiable policies to protect human rights defenders, both in their own countries and abroad, says Maria Dahle Executive Director of the Human Rights House Foundation, in the introduction to the Human Rights House Network Annual Report 2004. Read more about the activities at the established and emerging Human Rights Houses in Oslo, Moscow, Warsaw, Sarajevo, Bergen, London, Zagreb, Nairobi, Kampala, Minsk, Baku, Istanbul, and Bogota. 
 

Several of the recently released Uighur spokeswoman Rebiya Kadeer´s employees were brutally arrested by Chinese police yesterday. Her son is in hiding. The Rafto Foundation asks the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take action. (13-MAY-05)