Watchdog

HOMEL, Belarus -- An opposition activist in eastern Belarus has been jailed for 10 days for holding a silent protest in which he was the only participant, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

The Central District Court in Homel sentenced Vital Pratasevich to 10 days' administrative detention on October 24 for violating the law on holding public actions,

Pratasevich was detained on October 21 while staging a one-man silent protest at the "Lenin Square" bus stop in Homel. He was holding a portrait of jailed former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau.

Sannikau was jailed for five years in May over the mass protests in Minsk against the results of the December 2010 presidential election giving incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka a further term.

Pratasevich, who has taken part in many silent protests by the campaign Revolution via Social Networks, told RFE/RL last week he was assaulted by several unknown attackers in Homel on October 18.

Silent protests, where participants do not voice any slogans, have become popular in Belarus as people angry at the crackdown on opposition supporters or the country's economic crisis seek ways to prevent demonstrations being broken up by police.

Read more in Belarusian here

TULA, Russia -- A jailed former employee of Russia's state property agency is in solitary confinement after telling RFE/RL the Russian authorities orchestrated the fraudulent sale in 2004 of a stake in the oil giant Yukos, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

Maksim Dudarev, an ex-member of the ruling United Russia party, was placed in solitary confinement immediately after giving his interview to RFE/RL on October 11.

Dudarev, 30, is a former aide to United Russia Chairman Boris Gryzlov and an ex-employee of Rosgosimushchestvo, the state property agency. He was found guilty of fraud in 2009 and given a seven-year prison term that he is serving in a labor camp in Tula Oblast.

He alleged in his interview that the 2004 auction was not open and competitive but was used as a vehicle to transfer ownership of a stake in a key Yukos subsidiary to a state company.

Senior Lieutenant Maksim Denisov, a duty officer at the labor camp where Dudarev is serving his sentence, told RFE/RL that on October 11 Dudarev was placed in solitary confinement for "keeping banned items, namely a Samsung mobile phone."

But when RFE/RL contacted Aleksandr Kolosov, the ombudsman at the Directorate of the Federal System for Monitoring Penitentiaries in Tula Oblast, Kolosov was surprised to hear that Dudarev is in solitary confinement.

He said Dudarev has been commended several times for exemplary behavior and has never been reprimanded.

"That is why the labor camp administration decided he deserves to be recommended for early release on parole," Kolosov said.

Yulia Kozlova, an aide to Tula Central District Court judge Irina Krivolapova, told RFE/RL that Dudarev's parole request hearing was postponed until November 8 from October 20 because the labor camp failed to provide all the necessary documents.

Read more in Russian here