Watchdog

MINSK -- Police in Minsk have dispersed some 20 prisoners' mothers who attempted to stage a protest on the city's Liberty Square, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

On October 3, the protesters unfolded placards saying: "Fraudsters [Should Be Brought] to Justice!" "The Presidential Office Is the Defender of Lawlessness in Belarus!" and "Officials Are Guilty!"

An RFE/RL correspondent reported that police detained six protesters.

Protest leader Tamara Syarhey told journalists that the women are convinced their sons were sent to jail "unlawfully," and their cases should be reviewed.

Syarhey said they had no other way to make their protest known, as Supreme Court Chairman Valyantsin Sukala keeps refusing to meet with them.

On September 5, Syarhey said, Sukala refused to meet with them, even though presidential chief of staff Uladzimer Makey promised on December 10 that a special commission would be established to investigate all instances when court officials avoid meeting with the mothers of convicts who think they were sentenced by mistake.

Syarhey added that the women plan to gather on the square every day for a month.

Read more in Belarusian here

MINSK -- Former Belarusian presidential candidate Uladzimer Nyaklyaeu received "a final warning" from a parole officer on October 3 after leaving Belarus to visit Poland last week, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

Nyaklyaeu was summoned by police last week while he was in Warsaw attending the EU's Eastern Partnership summit and a human rights conference.

Last month, a court in Minsk barred Nyaklyaeu from leaving Minsk without written permission, and from traveling outside Belarus for the duration of his two-year suspended sentence.

It also barred him from attending public gatherings and meetings, ordered him to present himself at a police station once a week, and told him to stay home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Nyaklyaeu was given a two-year suspended sentence on May 20 for his role in a protest in Minsk on December 19 by some 15,000 people following the announcement of incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's reelection.

Nyaklyaeu was severely beaten and then arrested. He was subsequently placed under house arrest until his trial started in May.

The opposition said the presidential vote was fraudulent, and international election monitors described it as flawed.

Nyaklyaeu told RFE/RL after he visited the police station in Minsk on October 3 that he explained to the parole officer that he considers himself a free man and does not agree with his verdict, as he did not commit any crime.

"Therefore, I am confident that I had every right to travel to Warsaw at the invitation of the Polish government to take part in important international gatherings," Nyaklyaeu said.

Nyaklyaeu added that the parole officer told him that if he violates the restrictions once more, he will face a new trial and will be sent to jail.

Read more in Belarusian here