Finkevich detained by policemen and KGB and taken to tax inspection
Tax inspection of Zavadski district of Minsk demands “Young Belarus” leader Artur Finkevich to account for the amount by which his expenditures exceed revenues.
As BelaPAN was informed by Finkevich, on November 27 at about 2.30 p.m. he was detained in Ubarevich Street by KGB officers and police. “I left the house, and chekists (KGB servicemen) flew at me from every side. I started to run away, I ran for 500 metres. I was knocked down and placed into a minibus, and handcuffed. One of them was a policeman, and the three others were KGB men,” Finkevich said.
The activist was taken to a tax inspection where he was kept for about an hour, as he said. “I was told that over the last 5 years I had spent about 20 million rubles, while had about 900,000 BYR of revenues, so the amount by which his expenditures exceed revenues was 18 million. My expenditures were mobile phone payments, purchase of a computer and a car, which was registered as my property for a month only. They demand either to pay more than 2 million BYR of taxes, or to offer documents about origin of the money,” Finkevich said.
After that he was taken to the police department of Zavadski district. He was released from it after 7 p.m. “KGB servicemen were near me all the time, and they were not hiding that I was detained till the end of the EurAsEC summit. No charges were filed against me, but I was told that in six months I would be drafted to the army, when the record of my conviction would be expunged,” the activist said.
Finkevich is set to seek counsel of lawyers in order to strike out a new line for himself in relations with tax organs. “Other democratic activists faced similar situations as well. It is a new form of repressions evidently”, the activist believes.
On May 10 2006 Finkevich was sentenced to 2 years of restriction of freedom for spray painting “We want a new one!”, and on December 20, 2007 for a year and a half of imprisonment in for evasion of serving punishment. On February 5 the activist was released after his cassation appeal was considered.
