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March 22, 2006

Belarus Releases Detained Georgians And Pole

Opposition candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich talks to protesters on Minsk's October Square, Mar. 21 (RFE/RL)

March 22, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Three Georgians nationals have been released from police custody in Belarus and deported to neighboring Ukraine.
Dissident Orthodox priest Basil Kobakhidze, Baptist minister Malkhaz Songulashvili, and religious-freedom campaigner Lado Gogiashvili were detained March 20 after attending an unsanctioned opposition rally in Minsk.


Kobakhidze today gave a short telephone interview to Georgia's Imedi television from Kyiv.


Also, Poland's PAP news agency reports Belarusian police released lawmaker Jaroslaw Jagiello of the Truth and Justice ruling party.


Jagiello was also detained on the night of March 20 on charges of attending an opposition rally in Minsk. Jagiello spoke to RFE/RL Belarus Service about his detention.


"We were put in to the car by force,” he said. “All contacts were forbidden, they did not allow us to talk. They took away mobile phones. They did not allow us to contact with Polish Consul and with a translator who could have helped us because we did not understand everything."


Authorities have asked the Polish parliamentarian to leave Belarus.


(with additional material from Imedi TV, Civil Georgia, PAP, Belapan)


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