Poland’s prosecutors: No information about accused trade union activists ever given to Belarus
Warsaw has never provided the Belarusian side with any bank information concerning trade union leader Gennady Fyadynich and chief accountant Ihar Komlik, the Polish Prosecutor General’s Office says.
“In response to your request for information about Henadz Fyadynich and Ihar Komlik, we inform you that the Bureau of International Cooperation of the General Prosecutor’s Office has not filed the Belarusian side’s inquiries about the mentioned persons,” the press service said in a letter to belsat.eu.
Six years ago the case of human rights defender Ales Byalyatski was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for alleged tax evasion. A full-scale international scandal broke out after Lithuania and Poland had provided the Belarusian side with information on his case. The fact of his holding bank accounts abroad gave the grounds for criminal prosecution. The cash standing to the credit of accounts was used for human rights defence activity: HRC Viasna financially supported the people affected by Lukashenka’s regime. In court Byalyatski stated that he had no other possibility of getting financial aid from foreign backers. Having spent over 1,000 days in jail, Byalyatski was released in June, 2014.
A case under the same article (tax evasion) was initiated against the activists of the Independent Trade Union of Radio Electronic Industry (REP) Henadz Fyadynich and Ihar Komlik. The both may face up to seven years in prison and confiscation of property.
Earlier, Belsat received a similar answer from LithuaniaIn response to your request, we inform you that Belarus has not appealed to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania with regard to these persons.
“The Ministry of Justice receives requests from Belarus to provide information on the accounts of its citizens in the Bank of Lithuania. But such information is not conveyed to Belarus,” Lithuania’s Ministry of Justice told Belsat TV.
On August 2, the Minsk and Salihorsk offices of two key opposition trade unions were raided by the Department of Financial Investigations. Computers and hard drives were seized; the law enforcers were looking for documents. According to the investigation, trade union activists regularly traveled abroad to withdraw money from accounts in foreign accounts and bring them to Belarus.
According to Henadz Fyadynich, the case initiated against is nothing but retaliation for their civic activity during spring ‘non-parasite’ protests.
