Homel military prosecutor replies on foreign travel black list
Uladzimir Siakerka, Chairman of Homel
regional office of the United Left Party "Fair World", received a
reply to his appeal to local military prosecutor. The
politician urged the prosecutor to explain who, when, and why added him to a
black list, which resulted in certain problems while crossing the border. Earlier,
the regional leader was taken off the train while returning from Ukraine. The
border explained that Uladzimir Siakerka "is on the list of
requests by law enforcement agencies." Later,
the court sentenced the opposition leader to a fine for failure to comply with
the orders of the border guards.
Subsequent
appeals sent to various governmental bodies, demanding explanations on the fact
of harassment, were not successful. In
particular, commander of military unit No. 1242 Ihar Maroz said that "the
answer to your questions is not available, since military unit No. 1242 possesses
no information on you being present in any databases."
Acting military
prosecutor of Homel Siarhei Charednik said in response to the politician’s request
that the actions of the border troops did not go beyond their authority. Commenting
on the existence of a blacklist he said, "Other questions contained in
your request cannot be answered, as this information is limited to reporting
and dissemination under Article 17 of the Law "On Information,
Informatization and Protection of Information."
Uladzimir Siakerka intends to bring the
matter to court to find out why he is in some kind of a blacklist, and how a
citizen may be excluded from the list.