Stefanovich demands that investigative committee bring a criminal case concerning unlawful travel restrictions

On 4 May the deputy head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich applied to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus with the demand to bring a criminal case.

In his application the human rights defender expresses suspicions of deliberate criminal actions (including forgery of documents) as a result of which he was introduced in the database of the persons who are temporary prohibited to go abroad.

The human rights defender informs the investigative committee that his applications to various state organs gave no results.

“According to the notice, issued by the citizenship and migration department of the Partyzanski District Police Department of Minsk, this decision was taken by the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus, and the reason is – evasion from measures connected with the call-up to military service. According to the Partyzanski District Police Department, my passport data were put on the database by some Charednik A.V.

After receiving the notice, I required explanations from the Partyzanski district military enlistment office of Minsk. The military commissioner and his deputies answered that they hadn’t sent any information about me anywhere. There was no information about me in the database of the Minsk city military enlistment office either.”

Mr. Stefanovich points that the reasons stated in the notice are absurd and evidently unlawful. First of all, he is 12 years older than the maximal call-up age. Secondly, he served in the army in 1990-1992. Taking into account that foreign travel restrictions were imposed on a number of representatives of independent media, civil association and oppositional political parties, the human rights defender thinks that these restrictions are not occasional, but are a designed, unlawful and politically motivated action of Belarusian secret services.

“Due to the unlawful restriction of my right to leave the Republic of Belarus I addressed the Office of Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus on 21 March 2012 and asked to hold a prosecutorial examination of these facts and take the appropriate measures of prosecutorial reaction. On 28 March 2012 the prosecutor’s office forwarded this application to the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus. Then I received an answer from the General Staff of Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus #2/1-332 of 18 April 2012, signed by the first deputy head of the General Staff, general-major I.U. Laurynenka. As it follows from this answer, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus doesn’t have any information about the temporary restriction of my right to leave the Republic of Belarus. It means that the Ministry of Defense hasn’t taken any decisions concerning my person, and no information was passed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for putting me on the database,” writes the human rights defender.

As far as applications to all state agencies have given no result, Valiantsin Stefanovich, being guided by articles 166, 168 and 174 of the Criminal Process Code of the Republic of Belarus, asks the Investigative Committee to instigate a criminal case on the facts that are set forth in the application.
 
Bear in mind that Valiantsin Stefanovich wasn’t let out of Belarus at the border crossing point “Kamenny Loh” on 11 March 2012. According to explanations of the head of the border service, the passport data of the human rights defender were in the database of the persons who were temporary prohibited to go abroad.