Aliaksandar Atroshchankau: They took our passports!
- 30.03.2012, 10:12
The powers do everything to hinder oppositionists from going abroad.
We remind that today after having spent two days in actual “captivity”, opposition leaders Aliaksandar Atroshchankau, Siargei Kaliakin and Anatol Liabedzka detained at the Russian boarder were each sentenced to pay a fine of 350 thousand rubles (10 basic amounts).
Coordinator of European Belarus Aliaksandar Atroshchankau told charter97.org details of the detentions:
”Many people probably wonder why we were going to Moscow. We realized it was dangerous and we took the risk. In Vorsha several policemen entered our compartment and told us that according to the information they possessed we were smuggling drugs. Some persons in civilian clothes with cameras were in charge of everything while the policemen didn’t say a word. They didn’t find any drugs and accused us of minor hooliganism. What was happening yesterday looked like kidnapping. We were kept in the temporary isolation jail with no reason. It was ridiculous to hear them saying that the trial is kept “because of operative concerns”. During the trial all our appeals were declined, including the appeal to examine the video of what was going on in the compartment. Several times the witnessing policemen were caught lying. The sentence (a bit sensational) is definitely the achievement of the press since the coverage in the media gave a huge response.
The joy of the exoneration was spoilt almost immediately. Right after we were released, we went to the Transport police department of Vorsha. We got all our stuff back except for the passports. And they didn’t give us any comprehensive information; we have a note from the Transport police department that our belongings are there, but then we were told that they had been sent from the temporary isolation jail to the department of civil migration of the Minsk districts were we are registered. I am convinced that we’ll never get our passports back.
It is done in order to limit the possibility to travel, to participate in international forums, and to deliver opinions of free-thinking Belarusians,” Atroshchankau emphasized.