Searches and interrogations continue
At 12
a.m. on 31 January KGB officers paid a visit to an
activist of the Student Council (Studrada) Ales Krot. Only his
sister was at home at the time. They confiscated a computer, 14 CDs, 2 flash
cards and 4 diskettes. Short before this the KGB also searched the apartments
of two other activists of Student Council, Mikhas Matskevich and Mikhas
Matusevich.
On 31 January Andrei Makhunou, an officer of the Mahiliou Region KGB
Department, interrogated an activist of the Mahiliou region organization of the
Belarusian Popular Front Zmitser Salauyou concerning the events of 19 December 2010 in Minsk.
'The investigator asked me whether I saw those who were smashing r the window
and whether I knew any of them. I answered that I didn't see and didn't know
such people and that nobody called to break the windows,' commented Salauyou.
The investigator also asked him about a poem by a classic of the Belarusian
literature, Yanka Kupala, which was discovered on Salauyou's computer as a
result of the search that had been held in his apartment on 15 January. He
asked 'who prepared this document and who it belonged to'.
At 7 a.m.
on 1 February officers of law-enforcement agencies entered the apartment of
Zmitser Drozd, an activist of the electoral team of Andrei Sannikau and guarded
him for an interrogation at the Minsk City Investigative Department.
At about 1 p.m. KGB officers phoned to an activist of the youth wing of the
Belarusian Popular Front Anton Koipish. They told him they had a warrant for
searching his apartment. The activist managed to inform his mother about it.
Anton Koipish is known as a figurant of the 'process of 14'. In 2008 he was
drawn to criminal responsibility for participation in an action of protest held
by Minsk
entrepreneurs.
In the evening of 31 January the apartment the parents of an activist of the European Belarus was searched for about
two hours. The police tried to convince his mother that he was a ‘criminal’,
saying that he had been breaking the door of the House of the Parliament, and
it could be seen on video. Kazak’s mother said that she had met with the state
attorney on Friday evening. The woman refused from the attorney’s services,
after which the latter told her that he wouldn’t be allowed to pass food
parcels and she wouldn’t be able to maintain any contacts with the son in this
case.
On 1 February Siarhei’s mother met with an attorney who was provided by human
rights defenders. Bear in mind that Siarhei Kazakou was arrested on 27 January
and placed to the investigative department in Valadarski Street, where he is still
kept.
KGB officers also paid a visit to the apartment where an activist of the Young Front Hanna Sharuba lived together
with her grandmother. The first search took place in the apartment of Hanna’s
parents when she was serving the 10-day arrest to which she had been sentenced
for participation in the protest action of 19 December. The search was
conducted by A.Markouski – an investigation-criminalist of the Minsk
and Minsk
region KGB department, and two other officers – V.Faustovich and A.Kostsikau. They
confiscated the laptop that belonged to Hanna’s sister. According to Hanna, she
tried to prove that the laptop didn’t belong to her, but it didn’t stop the KGB
officers.
A Mahiliou activist of the civil campaign Nash
Dom Krystsina Shatsikava was interrogated at the Mahiliou Region KGB
Department for about three hours. The interrogation was conducted by authorized
operations officer A.Roshchyn.
Khrystsina Shatsikava had been detained on 19 December at about 11.30 p.m.,
after the dispersal of the protest action, in the arc under which one can
proceed from Leninhradskaya Street
to Nezalezhnastsi Street.
Krystsina and her friends were trying to defend people from the police clear-up.
She was beaten by the riot police in the yard of the Kastrychnitski District
Police Department, as a result of which she was hospitalized because of
internal bleeding. On 31 December she was punished with 1,050,000 rubles (about
$350) fine for participation in the protest action.