BERASTSE -- Two leading Belarusian activists have been charged with verbally insulting police, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

The two are members of the branch in the western town of Berastse of the unregistered Belarusian Christian Democratic party (BKhD).

Zmitser Shurkhay, who is a BKhD coordinator, and Ales Charkashin, who heads the BKhD's organizing committee in Berastse, were detained on December 15 while touring the region in preparation for a BKhD party congress on December 17.

Shurkhay told RFE/RL by phone from the police station that regular and traffic police flagged them down and told them that their car resembles one that hit a man in Minsk.

A third BKhD member, Viktar Chaykouski, told RFE/RL that although Charkashin and Shurkhay were taken to a police station in connection with that traffic accident, they were formally charged with insulting the police by using vulgar words and phrases.