Homel: KGB returns confiscated equipment in disabled state
During the presidential election 2011 Aleh
Karbalevich, a member of the Belarusian Popular Front Party from Rechytsa,
worked in the electoral teams of the democratic candidates Ryhor Kastusiou and
Uladzimir Niakliayeu.
On 15 March 2011 officers of the Homel KGB Department conducted a search in his
house in the village
of Perasviatoye in the
Rechytsa district. They confiscated the system unit of his computer, a
risograph, a small camera for video observance, brochures about the results of
the monitoring of the presidential election by the Belarusian Helsinki
Committee and Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in 2009,
published by the Human Rights Center Viasna.
On 29 July the KGB returned the risograph to the owner. However, it doesn't
work any more. When Mr. Karbalevich told the officers about it, captain Kolasau
(who had ordered the search) stated that they could bear no responsibility for
it as far as the state of the risograph hadn't been checked during the
confiscation.