Watchdog

Belarusian opposition activist Andrey Haydukou has been detained in his native town of Navapolatsak in the country's north.

The organization committee of the unregistered Belarusian Christian Democratic Party said Haydukou, one of its founders, was detained on November 21 after distributing leaflets with information about political prisoners in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.

Haydukou was released from jail in May after serving an 18-month term after for attempting to contact a foreign intelligence service.

Haydukou denied guilt and said his imprisonment was politically motivated.

In 2010-11, Haydukou served as an aide to opposition presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau, who received political asylum in Europe in 2012 after spending 16 months in jail following a crackdown on protests over the disputed reelection of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Lukashenka has tolerated little dissent in nearly 20 years as president.

A court in Kazakhstan has ordered the closure of an independent magazine that has scrutinized the authorities over human rights issues and corruption.

The editors of "Adam bol" (Be a Human) say the Almaty court's decision to shut the periodical's print and online platforms was delivered to them on November 20.

The Almaty mayor's office told RFE/RL that the periodical was closed due to the magazine's violation of laws "banning the propagation of forceful change in the country's constitutional structure, threating its territorial integrity and security, as well as inciting ethnic, religious and social hatred."

Last year, publishing houses in Almaty, Kazakhstan's biggest city, refused to print the periodical -- which then was called "Adam Reader's," after it reported on the deadly clashes between police and protesting oil workers in the western town of Zhanaozen.

The periodical is led by Gulzhan Erghalieva (eds: a woman), a prominent journalist who has faced numerous intimidations by police in many years.