Alyaksandr Milinkevich Faces Arrest

Source: www.charter97.org

The prosecutor’s office of Minsk has issued an official warning to the leader of the democratic forces of Belarus Aliaksandr Milinkevich for an interview in a Polish newspaper “Rzeczpospolita”. The prosecutor’s office charges the leader of opposition with “dissemination of false information, discrediting the Republic of Belarus and its state organs”. In line with the Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Belarus, discrediting the Republic of Belarus is punished by an arrest for up to 6 months or imprisonment for up to two years.

In the warning issued to Milinkevich acting Prosecutor of Minsk Staravoitau stated that “in the newspaper “Rzeczpospolita” of March 31, 2006 an article was published containing your statements about implication of the Belarusian authorities in the death of Polish diplomat Ryszard Badon-Lehr “.

As we have reported, Poland’s vice consul in the Belarusian city of Hrodna Ryszard Badon-Lehr died on April 6, 2006. The diplomat was found brutally beaten up in his apartment in Hrodna on March 22, several days after the presidential elections in Belarus.

A “preventive” conversation with the politician concerning his interview to the BBC radio station had been carried out as well. The prosecutor’s office was alarmed by usage of such words and phrases like “coup d`état”, “rigging presidential elections results”, “Lukashenka haven’t had a right a right to take part in the elections”.

“The authorities are afraid of truth and objectivity. Obeying the letter of the law, which repeats Soviet laws on censorship and discrimination, one cannot be engaged in politics at all, and it is only allowed for those who are loyal to the regime. But I will be engaged in politics until the victory of democracy in our country, and I cannot be intimidated in this way,” Aliaksandr Milinkevich said in an interview to the Charter’97 press center.