Bellona demands Belarusian authorities release arrested environmental activist Ozharovsky

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http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2012/ozharovsky_arrested

Bellona demands Belarusian authorities release arrested environmental activist Ozharovsky

Bellona demands authorities take immediate measures to release Russian environmentalist Andrei Ozharovsky, nuclear physics expert and regular author of Bellona’s Russian pages, who has been arrested and given a ten-day detention sentence in the Belarusian capital Minsk on what Bellona believes are egregiously trumped-up charges.

Bellona, 21/07-2012 - Translated by Maria Kaminskaya


Ozharovsky was among a group of four environmental and civil activists who on July 18 intended to pass an open statement protesting the construction of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Minsk.

Russian and Belarusian officials last Wednesday signed a general contract on the joint project that envisions Russia’s State Nuclear Corporation Rosatom building a 1,200-megawatt nuclear power plant to an as-yet untested Russian design in the Belarusian town of Ostrovets in Grodno Region.

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Ozharovsky was arrested along with his Belarusian colleagues, Belarusian Anti-Nuclear Campaign coordinator Tatiana Novikova, Irina Sukhiy of the environmental group Ekodom (Ecohome), and human rights activist Mikhail Matskevich of the Legal Transformation Center.

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Ozharovsky is reported to have been arrested on a street in Minsk on a disorderly conduct charge – using profane language in a public place – and taken to a local court the same day, where he was given a ten-day administrative arrest sentence to be served in a detention facility for misdemeanor offenders.

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Ozharovsky is believed to have been arrested for his intent to pass copies of an open statement criticizing the Ostrovets nuclear power plant project – an address signed by Ekodom, representatives of the Belarusian Green party, and members of the Belarusian NPP Public Environmental Impact Assessment Commission – to officials in the Russian and Belarusian governments, as well as the Belarusian Ministry of Energy.

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1. Health and life of arrested Tatiana Novikova are under threat

http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2012/7/19/55327/

19.07.2012

Health and life of arrested Tatiana Novikova are under threat


Arrested activist of the anti-nuclear campaign cannot survive without the constant use of special medicines.

According to the court, Tatyana Novikova must serve five days in the jail on Akrestin Street.

Tatyana Novikova is chronically ill, her thyroid gland is removed and she cannot live without the constant use of special medicines. Friends are worried that she may not survive five days in jail.

As Charter97.org reported, Novikova was arrested on Wednesday, together with a Russian nuclear physicist Andrei Ozharovsky. A little later, an environmentalist Irina Sukhiy and Mikhail Matskevich were also arrested. All were charged with minor disorderly conduct. All of them are activists of the anti-nuclear movement. On Wednesday they were planning to convey an appeal to the Russian embassy against signing the general contract for the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

Nevertheless, the general contract was signed during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to Minsk, and environmentalists found themselves imprisoned. Ozharovsky is sentenced to ten days in prison, Mackiewicz - to three. Irina Sukhiy was fined for 1.5 million rubles.