Watchdog

BAKU -- The trial of six opposition activists detained during an antigovernment protest four months ago resumed in Baku today, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports.

The six are Azerbaijan Popular Front members Sahib Karimov, Arif Alishli, Babek Hasanov, and Zulfuqar Eyvazli; Musavat party activist Elshan Hasanov; and Elnur Israfilov.

They are charged with organizing "actions resulting in the violation of public order, and resisting and using force against government officials." They could be sentenced to up to three years in jail if found guilty.

Two people were ordered to leave the courtroom: a 15-year-old relative of one of the defendants who filmed the proceedings on his mobile phone, and a woman who denounced the proceedings. People in the courtroom protested the expulsions.

The leaders of the opposition Musavat and Azerbaijan Popular Front parties, Isa Qambar and Ali Karimli, respectively, objected to the woman being forced to leave the courtroom.

Police officers said to have been injured by opposition activists during the protest testifed that they did not see any of the defendants smash the windows of a bus, which is the main accusation against them.

The defendants' lawyers demanded that the police officers should not testify further as their statements were contradictory.

Karimli told RFE/RL after the session that the witnesses' testimonies prove the defendants are not guilty.

"No one has even seen them break the glass," he said. "The criminal case was fabricated to arrest those who joined the protest. The trial process also proves it. We observed how the indictment was exposed."

An RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service correspondent reports that after the trial, dozens of opposition activists chanted "Freedom" and "Resignation" in front of the court building.

No detentions were reported, and police prevented some protesters from blocking the road in front of the building.

The trial on the same charges of eight other activists detained during the April 2 protest will continue next week.

Read more in Azeri here

MINSK -- There has been international condemnation of the arrest in Minsk of the head of the prominent Belarusian human rights group Vyasna, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

Financial police searched Ales Byalyatski's apartment and dacha and Vyasna's office on August 4 before remanding him in custody for 72 hours and formally charging him with large-scale tax evasion.

Vyasna has been active in reporting on the police crackdown on peaceful antigovernment protests. It also campaigns on behalf of political prisoners.

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry issued a statement protesting Byalyatski's arrest. It said Lithuania and other EU member states will undertake further action to secure the release of Belarusian political prisoners.

Political opponents of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka are routinely jailed, and government forces swiftly and brutally intervened to halt public protests and imprison dissenters following his reelection in December.

In a strongly worded statement, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the pan-European rights watchdog, condemned the regime's actions against dissidents, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of "all political prisoners and civil society activists."

OSCE chairman Audronius Azubalis, who is neighboring Lithuania's foreign minister, said Byalyatski's arrest was "the latest example of persecution."

Azubalis said Lithuania and other EU member states will undertake further action to secure the release of Belarusian political prisoners.

Meanwhile, Lithuania's Justice Ministry acknowledged today that it passed to the Belarusian authorities details of Byalyatski's bank account and those of hundreds of other people, under what it said was a bilateral agreement.

Vyasna said on August 4 that the data served as the basis for Byalyatski's detention.

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek called on the Belarusian authorities to release Byalyatski and other "unjustly detained" political prisoners.

"Dragging people [off] the streets takes us back to the dark communist past that we do not want repeated ever again," Buzek said in a statement. "This is unacceptable on our continent in the 21st century."

The International Federation for Human Rights, of which Byalyatski is vice president, has also expressed concern and called for Byalyatski's immediate and unconditional release.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights today called on the Belarusian authorities "to guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Bialatski and all human rights defenders in Belarus."

Read more in Belarusian here