Siarhei Alfer, head of UCP executive committee, gets back the money seized by airport customs officers on March 25

On March 25 officers of Minsk-2 airport customs seized 80 USD and 135 Euros from Siarhei Alfer. They claimed the money was fake.

Siarhei Alfer applied to Kastrychnitski and Minsk city court. However, his suits had no result, because KGB, the body in charge of seized money, failed to finish its expert examination. Correspondence with the airport customs office, State Customs Committee, the regional and central prosecutor’s offices, and KGB lasted for over 6 months. As a result, in October the Prosecutor’s General office ordered the KGB to give the money back. It took the KGB a month to execute the prosecutor’s order. Finally, the KGB gave the money to the customs office of Minsk-2 airport so that it could return it to the owner.

“During all that time I haven’t received a single answer from the KGB about the fate of the money. That is why I plan to appeal to court when I receive the money”, -- said Siarhei Alfer. – “I want to receive an answer why KGB violated the law and failed to carry out an expert examination during 6 months”.

In March 2006 similar situation happened to Andrei Sannikau, coordinator of Charter’97. Customs officers seized 1, 040 USD and 260 Euro from him. Despite the fact that he received a report about his strip-search which says he did not have any prohibited things on him, the customs officers claimed that the money might be fake. Sannikau never received his money back.