Invention of Belarusian KGB: telephone interrogation

Krystsina Shatsikava, an activist of the civil campaign Nash Dom from Mahiliou, was summonsed for an interrogation at the Minsk KGB. KGB officers promised her a reimbursement for the travel expenses. However, the activist demanded to pay the money in advance, as when she had come to the Minsk City Police Department they had also promised a reimbursement, but instead gave her a written obligation to pay the money after getting fines from participants of the “mass riot”.

As the KGB refused to give her money for travel expenses, she refused to come to them. Then one of the officers proposed her to be interrogated over the phone. However, she refused from it as well and demanded that they should abide by the legal procedures. After this, the KGB officer said he would come to her at 3 p.m. on 15 March.

“Most probably, they want to interrogate me concerning the photos I had made during the action of protest against the rigged election in the evening of 19 December 2010. I had already passed all photos to the Minsk KGB during the previous interrogation, that’s why I see no sense in another one,’ commented Krystsina.

According to human rights defender Barys Bukhel, KGB also tried to hold a telephone interrogation of Aliaksandr Dziamidau, an activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy, but he also refused to be interrogated in such a way.

Human Rights Chronicle