Nikolai Khalezin in hiding after the KGB issue arrest warrant for the co-founder of the Belarus Free Theatre. Mike Harris reports
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Index on Censorship has learned that Natalia Koliada, a founder member of the Belarus Free Theatre, has been detained by authorities in Minsk. Koliada has been unable to contact other members of the dissident theatre group. Tens of thousands of people have gathered in the Belarusian capital’s Independence Square to protest the result of the presidential election, which incumbent Alexander Lukashenko claims to have won with 79 per cent of the vote.
Jude Law, Ian McKellen and Samuel West take to the stage in support of Belarus Free Theatre
5 December 2010
“When people are being kidnapped and killed, then you have to take action to change things in your country” (Natalia Koliada, co-founder of Belarus Free Theatre).
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Index on Censorship’s Mike Harris was due to meet Charter 97‘s Aleh Byabenin in Minsk, Belarus last week. Instead he ended up attending his funeral. As Index reported on Saturday, Byabenin was found dead on Friday evening, apparently hanged.
Mike explained the situation in Belarus to BBC World Service’s Europe Today yesterday (6 September). Click here to listen (from 40 mins in).
Mike was also interviewed for Russian television after Aleh’s funeral, along with members of Charter 97 and the Belarus Free Theatre.