Mother of BCD activist writes to Baranavichy Prosecutor’s Office

Iryna Karnitskaya, mother of Artsiom Babei, activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy, filed a complaint with Baranavichy Interdistrict Prosecutor’s Office about the 18 December raid on their apartment. She says that two plainclothes policemen showed a search warrant signed by the Investigative Committee, but refused to leave a copy of this document. The warrant said that a youth with a group of unidentified persons clashed with foreigners, using violent actions, on 13 December in Lenin Square. Therefore, Artsiom Babei’s residence was searched in order to find materials and things that could help find these suspects. However, no one explained to Iryna Karnitskaya what her son was to do with the fight.

In her statement to the prosecutor, Iryna Karnitskaya notes that during the inspection of the apartment the police were more interested in her son’s paper rather than in physical evidence linking him to the conflict. Policemen even took the woman’s personal computer, various CDs and DVDs and the BCD information literature, which certainly has nothing to do with the Belarusian-Turkmen youth conflict in Baranavichy.

Iryna Karnitskaya believes that the actions of the police are harassment of her son for political reasons. She requested a prosecutor's investigation and assessment of the illegal actions of the police employees, as well as assistance in returning her belongings.