Ales Bialacki, head of the Human Rights Center „Viasna” was arrested for three days, as a suspect in case of big-scale tax evasion, based on the article 243 of the Belarusian Criminal Code. If found guilty, he can be sentenced to a maximum of 7 years in prison and property loss, informed Tatiana Raviak from “Viasna”.
Ales Bialacki, also a deputy president of the International Human Rights Federation, was arrested on August 4th, late afternoon, in the vicinity of the Victory Square in Minsk. He managed to inform Tatian Raviak that he is being arrested.
After Bialacki’s arrest, his apartment, dacha and Viasna’s office were searched by the officers from the Financial Investigation Department of the State Control and the KGB, according to Raviak. She also informed that Bialacki’s computer was confiscated.
After the search, Bialacki was interrogated in the Financial Investiagtion Departament, in a presence of his lawyer.
Human Rights Center „Viasna”, headed by Bialacki, was launched in 1998, and a year later managed to register as an NGO. But in 2003, the Supreme Court revoked Viasna’s registration, due to their participation in the monitoring of the 2001 presidential election in Belarus. In March 2004, the Center was admitted to the International Federation of Human Rights. Belarusian activists have tried few times to re-register Viasna, but their effort turned out to be futile.
Belsat
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