Militiamen armed with assault riffles visiting apartment of BPF activist

• 10.11.2008, 17:14

Anatol Valyuk, policical activist and head of the Belarusian Popular Front party of Svislach town (the Hrodna region), is persecuted by local militia.

On November 2, when the Day of Memory of Insurgents of 1863 was marked in Svislach and the region, Anatol Valyuk was detained late at night when cycling home, Viasna human rights center reports.

The activist was detained near his house and was guarded to a local militia station with his bicycle. He was offered to sign a report on allegedly administrative offence and was threatened with administrative arrest. Anatol Valyuk refused to sign the report and was guarded home.

After some days, a district militia officer came to Valyuk and suggested to go to a militia department. Anatol Valyuk demanded to obey the laws and sent a necessary summons to him. When a summons was issued, Valyuk went to the militia department where deputy chief of the department Salahubik fined him of 35,000 rubles. The public activist was accused of being drunk and wearing untidy cloths in the city center on November 2. Anatol Valyuk denied flatly this far-fetched and absurd accusation.

Human rights from Hrodna report that this story was continued on Saturday, November 8, when militiamen armed with assault riffles burst into Valyuk’s house. They said they had been called by that address. After militiamen found out they were mistaken, they went away. Anatol Valyuk thinks these actions are a planned long-term action of his persecution by the local authorities.

It should be reminded that Anatol Valyuk was repeatedly arrested and persecuted by Svislach militia ahead of important public and political events for the last years.