MOSCOW, May 30 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch called on the government in Belarus to stop harassing human rights activists after a leading defender was arrested for "hooliganism."
Human rights activist Oleg Volchek was arrested last week in Minsk and ordered to spend nine days in jail on charges of "minor hooliganism."
Hugh Williamson, director of European and Central Asian affairs at Human Rights Watch, said it appears the charges against Volchek were politically motivated.
"The government needs to stop harassing human rights defenders and allow civil society groups to operate free from repression," Williamson said in a statement from Moscow.
The rights organization said Volchek was arrested a day after meeting with one of its researchers.
Belarusian officials in April released former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov and his campaign director Dmitry Bondarenko, who had been arrested following disputed December 2010 elections.
U.N. experts had said that new laws curtailing the right to peaceful protest could worsen the "current climate of fear and intimidation" in Belarus, however.
Hundreds of challengers to President Alexander Lukashenko were rounded up following the election.
