On January 21, law enforcers made an unexpected visit to the Office for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Minsk.
According to Thursday’s statement, the Department of Financial Investigations of the State Control Committee is carrying out a check on the Office staff over allegedly illegal receiving funds in the form of charitable donations and foreign aid.
NGO director Syarhei Drazdouski has not answered the phone for hours, other employees are not available for immediate comment. A computer and a mobile phone were confiscated from accountant Tatsyana Kryshtal, our journalists report.
At about 3 pm (local time), the office was closed. According to Belsat sources, several employees were taken to the Department of Financial Investigations, but the reason for their presumably being detained is still unknown.
It should be recalled that a number of protest actions named March of People with Disabilities took place in Minsk and other Belarusian cities In the autumn of 2020. In mid October, the first rally of such kind was held in the country: people with special needs, their families and friends joined protesting against police abuse, rigging elections, persecuting dissidents.
In late December, Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey announced limiting the activities of a number of NGOs in Belarus and reviewing their humanitarian, educational and cultural programs in the wake of the third package of sanctions imposed on Belarusian officials by the European Union.
