Milinkievich: Did Poland release information on Belarusian dissidents‘ bank accounts?
Belarusian opposition is taken aback by a rumor that Polish Prosecutor General has handed over to Belarusian authorities information on dissidents‘ accounts in Polish banks at the end of June 2011. The data provided by the Prosecutor General might have included also Ales Bialacki’s bank account.
Ales Bialacki is a head of Viasna Human Rights Center. He was arrested on Augst 4th, on charges of big scale tax evasion. The charges against him were based on documents handed over to the authorities in Minsk by Lithuanian Ministry of Justices. The documents contained information on Bialacki’s and 400 other Belarusian dissidents‘ bank accounts. If proven guilty, he is facing up to seven years in prison and a property loss.
Polish Prosecutor General is now on vacation, and we were also unable to reach his spokesperson to ask for their comments.
Belarusian dissident Aleksander Milinkievich confirmed that the unofficial information about Poland‘s complicity in handing over information on dissidents‘ bank accounts to regime in Minsk, has been circulating among the Belarusian opposition members. He told Belsat that he was unable to confirm the news and called on Polish authorities to reveal all they know about that issue. Milinkievich thinks that spreading such rumor might be also a KGB provocation. – However, if the news turns out to be true and Polish state institutions committed such mistake, I call on them to support in all manners the threatened dissidents and their families. – he told Belsat.
Tatiana Ravyaka from Viasna Human Rights Center has also confirmed that such information appeared and stated that her organization petitioned Polish authorities asking for explanation.
A bilateral agreement on legal help signed by Poland and Belarus in 1994, created a legal framework for the two countries to exchange such information as the bank accounts data.
Belsat
