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Belarusian authorities free political researcher detained in Minsk

He spent three hours at a district police station, after which he contacted his friends to tell them the police had released him

MINSK, October 6 (Itar-Tass) – Independent political scientist Oleg Manayev, the chief of the Independent Institute for Social, Economic and Political Studies (NISEPI) who was detained in the Belarussian capital Minsk earlier Thursday has been set free.

He spent three hours at a district police station, after which he contacted his friends to tell them the police had released him.

Manayev was going to a news briefing for the diplomats accredited in Minsk that was to be held at the Polish embassy.

He was supposed to do a presentation of NISEPI’s most recent research. According to eyewitnesses, policemen came up to him in the street and demanded his passport.

Upon checking it, a policeman told Manayev the patrol had a sanction to arrest him.

A number of political experts believe his research dwelt on a recent fall of President Alexander Lukashenko’s popularity ratings.

NISEPI is a nongovernmental research center set up in Belarus in 1992 by a group of researchers, journalists, politicians, and businessmen.

At present, it is registered in Vilnius, the capital of neighboring Lithuania, as a public organization.