Statkevich asks Merkel to find German citizen who informed Lukashenka of ‘armed militants’ plot’
Mikalai Statkevich, a former political prisoner and 2010 presidential candidate, has approached German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a letter. The politician asked Angela Merkel to identify a citizen of Germany whose report had allegedly become the ground for the creation of a conspiracy theory by the Belarusian authorities.
“Given that the fate of dozens of Belarusian citizens and their families is at stake, I am asking you to task the country’s law enforcers with requiring information about a citizen of Germany who wrote a letter to Lukashenka. The Belarusian secret services do have contact details of the person; a photocopy of her letter has been published by state-run mass media. I am also asking you to question this ‘witness’ using a lie detector,” Mikalai Statkevich said on Facebook.
The letter of mysterious ‘Frau A.’ is reported to have triggered initiating the case of ‘armed militants’ who were ‘preparing mass riots in Belarus’. On March 21, president Alyaksandr Lukashenka stated that several dozen persons ‘trained how to deal with weapons in [special] camps’ had been arrested in Belarus. According to him, such camps were located not far from the Belarusian towns of Babruysk and Asipovichy.
“Thank God that real Belarusians let us know about it when visiting the European Union. A woman came to our embassy and warned us in an official letter that a provocation was being mounted. And we began to deal with the situation. Indeed, very interesting things have come to light,” Lukashenka stressed.
As a result, about 30 persons – former members of the defunct sports and patriotic organization White Legion, state-authorized sports and military club Patriot, Young Front activists, historians, as well as people who are not associated with any organizations, landed up in jail.
- ‘White Legion’ case inconsistencies emerge as KGB arrests continue
- Dashkevich accused of training persons for participation in mass riots
- Lukashenka finds one more ‘armed militant’: 27 arrestees on list
On Tuesday, state-controlled newspaper Belarus Today (SB, former Soviet Byelorussia) published a long-read story dedicated to the White Legion. The paper says that 35 persons are involved in the case of the preparation of mass riots; 20 of them were charged with establishing an illegal armed group In accordance with Article 287 of the Criminal Code, they may face up to 5 years of restriction of liberty or 3 to 7 years of imprisonment. The information was confirmed by KGB spokesman Dzmitry Pabyarzhyn.
Lukashenka’s mouthpiece Soviet Byelorussia also published the letter of ‘Frau A.’, a woman who had reportedly informed Belarusian diplomats in Germany about the ‘plot’ being prepared.
