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President Buzek made the following statement on the detention of 2009 Sakharov Prize Winner Oleg Orlov and some 100 others in Moscow:
"On behalf of the European Parliament I have to express my consternation on hearing of the detention of some 100 people, including Oleg Orlov, head of the Memorial human rights Center, and Laureate of the Sakharov Prize 2009. They were arrested during a peaceful demonstration on Triumphalnaya Square, in Moscow on 31 January.
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. On 31 December 2009, 82 year-old Lyudmila Alexeyeva faced similar action merely for defending the constitutional right to demonstrate freely and peacefully.
I call on the Russian authorities to cease this heavy-handed treatment of peaceful demonstrators."
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See also Sydney Irresistible and for personal comment, Mike Hitchen Unleashed
Putting principles before profits
See also Sydney Irresistible and for personal comment, Mike Hitchen Unleashed
Putting principles before profits