Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities under attack

Aleh Hrableuski and Siarhei Drazdouski from the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are facing fraud charges, after they were questioned by officers of the Investigative Committee last afternoon, February 3. The NGO’s company lawyer Hrableuski was detained for 72 hours to await official charges, while Drazdouski, the Office’s leader and a wheelchair user himself, was placed under house arrest.

The day before, February 2, the two human rights defenders spent seven hours under interrogation at the Department for Financial Investigations.

Siarhei Drazdouski, director of the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Hrableuski says that the officers called him a criminal and a swindler. They accused the NGO of referring several disabled persons to lawyers who helped these people defend their rights in protest-related cases. Hrableuski also said that during interrogation he was stripped naked and threatened with reprisals. No lawyers were allowed to intervene.