Several more turns of the screw

摘要

It is against the law in Belarus to do lots of things that are unobjectionable in most countries. It is also, apparently, against the law just to think about doing some of them. On August 4th four people were jailed, for between six months and two years, for belonging to an unregistered organisation, that "infringes upon the interests and rights of citizens". Their offence? Planning to monitor the rigged presidential election in March; they were arrested in February to stop them doing so.