Journalist Yury Varonezhtsau applies to court to return confiscated belongings and money

On 29 June, a member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, Yury Varonezhtsau, applied to the Tsentralny District Court of Homel with a complaint against the actions of the police department of the Homel Region Executive Committee, who had conducted a search at his home on 18 May and had confiscated some things that belonged to him and his family.

Among the confiscated items there are things that belong to his under-aged daughter and the son, who has been disabled since childhood. The police also confiscated $5,400, which hardened the life of the family and the children in particular.

According to Mr. Varonezhtsau, the police officers failed to explain during the search what things could be confiscated as a crime’s tool and what relation the confiscated items could have to an unknown criminal case to which they referred.

That’s why Yury Varonezhtsau asks the court to oblige the inquiry section of the police department to return him the confiscated items. However, his previous applications to the General Procuracy and the Leninski District Police Department of Minsk (that had instigated the criminal case against activists of the civil campaign Speak Truth!) gave no results. The Chairperson of the Leninski District Police Department just informed the journalist that his complaint had been considered and attached to the criminal case. The General Procuracy still hasn’t given an answer.

Yury Varonezhtsau is also a Homel civil and political activist and a former deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.