Minsk, 11 August 1997 (RFE/RL) - Interfax reported on Saturday the wife of a Russian television reporter being held in custody in Belarus on charges of illegally crossing the border has asked Russian President Boris Yeltsin's daughter to help ensure the journalist is released. Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana Dyachenko was recently appointed a presidential aide.
The reporter, Pavel Sheremet, a Belarussian citizen who heads the Public Russian Television (ORT) bureau in Minsk, was arrested last month along with a cameraman and driver on charges of illegally crossing Belarus's border with Lithuania. The driver has been released.
The reporter's mother, Lyudmila Sheremet, has sent appeals for her son's release to the presidents of Russia, Lithuania and the United States and to international human rights organizations.
The reporter, Pavel Sheremet, a Belarussian citizen who heads the Public Russian Television (ORT) bureau in Minsk, was arrested last month along with a cameraman and driver on charges of illegally crossing Belarus's border with Lithuania. The driver has been released.
The reporter's mother, Lyudmila Sheremet, has sent appeals for her son's release to the presidents of Russia, Lithuania and the United States and to international human rights organizations.