KGB tries to gag Kalyakin
- 17.03.2011, 10:33
On March 16 the KGB (the State Security Committee) of Belarus officially warned the chairman of the Belarusian Leftist party “Just World” Syarhei Kalyakin.
The politician has been warned that it is inadmissible to disseminate untrustworthy information, which can be a threat to the national security of Belarus.
Kalyakin told that to udf.by website. “I was summoned for interrogation in the case of December 19 events. The interrogation lasted for almost 4 hours,” Syarhei Kalyakin said. “After that I was handed an official warning signed by the deputy chairman of the KGB Viktar Vyahera.”
As said by the politician, he is charged with “illegal actions, consisting in providing untrustworthy information which harms the national security of Belarus, to a representative of a foreign state, a Bundestag deputy M.-L. Beck, in Minsk on December 28, 2010”.
The politician is warned he can be brought to responsibility under Article 369-1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (“Discrediting the Republic of Belarus”) in case he continues “illegal actions”.
Kalyakin says he took part in a meeting with a deputy of the German parliament, L.-M. Beck. However, as said by Kalyakin, he acted in accordance with the laws and the Constitution of Belarus. It was a public discussion which concerned evaluation of events on December 19 in Belarus. He expressed his point of view, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.
In particular, the politician finds the criminal case on “mass riot” charges against participants of the peaceful rally on December 19, 2010 had been opened unlawfully.
“I think other cases should have been opened, on different articles of the Criminal Code: against the hooligans who in reality were breaking windows in the House of Government, and against the officials, senior security agencies’ officers, who demonstrated criminal negligence. They did not stop actions of the hooligans, which could turn into mass disturbances. Their criminal negligence could result in an emergency,” the leader of the “Just World” party stressed.
Besides, Kalyakin expressed his viewpoint on the election campaign.
“Fro example, the fact that home and foreign observers had not been allowed to monitor vote count, cannot be called knowingly false information which can harm national security of Belarus. Otherwise most election commissions are to be punished under this article, as they interfered with exercising this legal right,” the politician said.
As said by the leader of the Belarusian Left, he expressed his disagreement with the warning and would appeal against it according to the law.
S. Kalyakin believes: “Calling legal political activities a crime under Article 369-1 of the Criminal Code could be viewed as exerting pressure.”
He stated that “now the authorities dislike our work on release of people kept in remand prisons. To my mind, they had been imprisoned unlawfully, and criminal cases against them had been initiated unlawfully.”
Under Article 369-1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus “Discrediting the Republic of Belarus” a person can be punished by an arrest up to 6 months, or imprisonment for up to 2 years.