European Parliament head condemns opposition arrests in Moscow

Feb 1, 2010, 16:35 GMT

Brussels - Russia should stop harassing peaceful demonstrators, the European Parliament president Jerzy Buzek said on Monday, condemning the arrest in Moscow of tens of human rights activists on Sunday.

Protesters gathered in the streets on Sunday to demonstrate against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev, but about 100 of them were detained briefly and then released because authorities had not not authorized the rally.

Oleg Orlov, head of the Memorial human rights Centre, an NGO that received the parliament's Sakharov Prize for human rights in 2009, was among those arrested.

In a statement released in Brussels, Buzek expressed his 'consternation' and urged 'Russian authorities to cease this heavy- handed treatment of peaceful demonstrators.'

He stressed that 'it is the second time since the award of the 2009 Sakharov Prize in Strasbourg in December that one of our laureates has been arrested,' recalling 82-year-old Lyudmila Alexeyeva's detention in December 31 'merely for defending the constitutional right to demonstrate freely and peacefully.'

Russian opposition groups recently started holding rallies on the 31st day of the month in a nod to the 31st article of the Russian constitution, which enshrines the right to peaceful assembly.