Syarhei Dyleuski, the leader of the strike committee at Minsk Tractor Plant (MTZ), left Minsk for Warsaw, Coordination Council press secretary Anton Radnyankou said on Tuesday.
According to him, Dyleuski had to escape for safety reasons. Earlier, his family arrived in Poland on the back of the treats voiced by the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB).
Last week, Syarhei Dyleuski quit his job at MTZ; the plant administration claims he left voluntarily. However, Dyleuski says they used blackmail towards him, threatening to give the sack to his parents who also work at the enterprise.
On August 24, Syarhei Dyleuski was detained for ‘participating in an unauthorised mass event’ at the entrance to the tractor plant, where he came to support the workers together with his associate Volha Kavalkova. Having spent 25 days in prison, the strike movement activist was released.
In the wake of the brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya initiated the creation of the Coordination Council (СС) as part of taking urgent measures to restore law and order in Belarus as well as to ensure the transfer of power in the country. Belarus’ Prosecutor General opened a criminal case over establishing the Council, naming it a ‘threat to national security’. The authorities believe the body aims at seizing power in Belarus.
The members of the CC board were jailed (Liliya Ulasava, Maryia Kalesnikava, Maksim Znak) or forced out of the country (Pavel Latushka, Syarhei Dyleuski, Volha Kavalkova, Svyatlana Alexievich). Tsikhanouskaya was also compelled to leave Belarus; now she is staying in Vilnius.
On September 17, the European Parliament recognised the Coordination Council as ‘a temporary representative of the people, who demands democratic changes in Belarus’.
