March 02, 2006, 16:40

Today candidate for presidency in Belarus, Alyaksandr Kazulin has been brutally beaten up by people in mufti, allegedly officers of the Interior Troops brigade SWAT (SOBR). He was beaten during the attempt to register in the Palace of Railway Workers as a participant in the so-called “all-Belarusian assembly”. Witnesses say that Kazulin was beaten up personally by SWAT commander Dzmitry Paulichenka, suspected of Belarusian journalist and oppositionists’ abductions and murders by international community. Paulichenka, by the way, is one of the candidates of the “all-Belarusian assembly”. Members of Kazulin’s team Myachyslau Hryb, Valery Fralou, Aleh Vouchak and some journalists were beaten as well. It is known that TV cameraman of the Reuters has been seriously injured.

After the battery Kazulin was taken to an undisclosed location in a blue microbus. In order to prevent journalists from filming that, they were blocked in a hall of the Palace of Railway Workers.

Source: ZUBR/BISON [1]