Plainclothesmen try to get into apartment of opposition politician Dzyanis Sadowski
Men in civilian clothes attempted to get into
the apartment of Dzyanis Sadowski, executive secretary of Belarusian
Christian Democracy (BCD), in Minsk on Monday morning.
"BCD activists hold meetings at Sadowski's home from time to time," BCD Co-chairman Vital Rymashewski told BelaPAN. "Our activist happened to be there in the morning and did not open the door when plainclothesmen rang the bell."
Unidentified
men currently stay in the yard of the apartment house, on staircases
and even on the roof, Mr. Rymashewski said. They allowed the BCD
activist to leave without any impediment.
"I have no idea what these people want," he said.
"Maybe Alyaksandr Lukashenka has decided to inspect yards in Minsk. As
for Sadowski, he is not in Belarus. He is staying abroad."
On
October 5, a child welfare officer visited the apartment to assess the
living conditions of Mr. Sadowski's three-year-old son and
four-month-old daughter
The social worker announced that she
would like to see how he and his wife looked after their children. She
noted that Mr. Sadowski had repeatedly been arrested and convicted under
the Civil Offenses Code.
Mr. Sadowski described the incident as
an attempt to put pressure on him for his political activities. He
stressed that adults could not be expected to be at home in the middle
of a working day, and that child welfare officers never visited the
homes of people who had served jail terms for committing real offenses.
"The
district police officer visited me right after the September 18-23
parliamentary elections, now child welfare officers are interested in my
family," Mr. Sadowski said. "I don't know exactly what they want, but I
can say for sure that this is stressful for me and my wife. It's one
thing when authorities give me a hard time, but it's another thing when
they go after my family and kids."
