House of Union of Poles in Belarus’s activist Teresa Sobol searched by militia

• 28.06.2010, 11:04

On June 28, the house of Teresa Sobol (Tereza Sobal), activist of the unrecognized Union of Poles in Belarus, was searched in connection with a criminal case initiated against her.

The criminal case was suspended, but then opened again two days after the resignation of Andzelika Borys.

“The Belarusian authorities think resignation of Andzelika Borys is their great victory. That is the reason why another wave of pressure on Union’s activists started,” Andrzej Poczobut (Andrei Pachobut), the head of the UPB main council, says.

According to him, on February 24, chief of the investigation department of Valozhyn militia department Alyaksandr Shulha stopped criminal investigation as the period of limitation had expired. “However, Shulha resumed the investigation and signed a warrant to search Sobol’s house and shed. As it follows from the search warrant, militiamen were looking for the “instruments of crime” – computer and media storage devices. They failed to find anything like that, the search brought no results,” Poczobut said.

He regards reopening the criminal case against the Union’s activist as “an evident political order of the authorities aimed at demoralizating members of the unofficial Union of Poles in Belarus”. “Perhaps the authorities decided it was their success to force Union’s head Andzelika Borys to resign. The authorities want to nail down this success by intimidating the rest Union’s members,” Poczobut supposes.

On December 18, 2009, a criminal case was initiated against Sobol. She is charged with misuse of material aid received from the UPB leadership in 2004, before the Union split in two parts – one recognized by the Belarusian authorities and the other unofficial.

The search was carried out by officer of the militia department of Valozhyn.