Leaders of the Free Metal Workers’ Trade Union detained in Minsk

February 25, BPN. Deputy Chair of the Free Metal Workers’ Trade Union Aliaksandr Jeŭdakimčyk and lawyer Ihar Komlik were detained on February 24 after a search in the Minsk office of the organization, their whereabouts are unknown.

According to Viasna Human Rights Center, the chair of the trade union, Aliaksandr Buchvostaŭ, 77, also cannot be reached.

The Free Metal Workers’ Trade Union issued a statement demanding that the authorities release its leaders as well as “all those illegally detained in places of detention.” It also appealed to the international trade union structures to provide “all possible support and apply all available pressure on the authorities, which openly despise all social and moral norms.”

The Free Metal Workers’ Trade Union is a member organization of the independent Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions.