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Belarus: Mass Arrests of Opposition Activists

Human rights and opposition groups in Belarus said police arrested several activists at their offices in Minsk and cities throughout the country, seizing computers, flash cards, and discs, Charter 97 and Radio Svaboda reported on Tuesday.

Police raided the offices of the Speak the Truth campaign in Minsk, two NGOs in Mogilev, the Social Democratic Party in Brest, and the homes of opposition activists and independent journalists in Minsk, Hrodna, Brest, Slonim, and Babruysk.

Vladimir Neklyayev, leader of the Speak the Truth campaign, was arrested together with around 20 campaign members in the group's offices in Minsk. The police raid also targeted the oldest opposition party in Belarus, the United Civil Party.

More information:

http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2010/5/18/29082/
http://naviny.by/rubrics/english/2010/05/18/ic_articles_259_167856

Filed under: Alexander Lukashenko Belarus Democracy Freedom of Speech Human Rights Opposition Repression
 

Latvian cyberactivist Neo arrested

Media_httpbalticrepor_miblg

Ilmārs Poikāns, researcher at the University of Latvia's Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science has confessed to being "Neo" who accessed and enabled the publication of the tax records of Latvia's political and business elite. State Police Chief said Neo's so-called People's Army of the 4th Awakening was likely fictitious and Poikāns acted alone, communicating via social networking sites about how to access the data.

The State Revenue Service said 120 people illegally downloaded documents from the service's electronic declaration system and that the "hole" existed from the end of 2007 until 4 February 2010, when it was discovered and closed. Some 7.4 million documents, equaling 120 GB of data, were downloaded from the site, including income statements and tax declarations of public officials, bureaucrats, and business.

The data shows that top executives of the municipal companies received huge monthly salaries and enormous bonuses went out the door all while regular employees took wage reductions in light of budget cuts. Now, parts of Latvian society that lauded "Neo" as a hero are standing in defense of Poikāns' actions. There was a brief protest in front of the Cabinet of Ministers building Thursday in support of Poikāns.

http://balticreports.com/?p=17430

Filed under: Freedom of Speech Information Latvia Neo Transparency
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