Foreign travel restrictions to Artur Finkevich

15.05.2008. Tags: Young Front, political prisoners, political persecution, Finkevich, youth leaders, foreign travel restrictions.
Source: Charter`97.

In the morning of 13 May, when the Young Front deputy head Artur Finkevich was driving in a car with his colleagues to the Belarusian-Lithuanian border (Kamenny Loh), the Belarusian customs officers tried not to allow him to cross the border. They explained his name was in the list of temporally restricted to leave Belarus. One of the border crossing officers took a personal decision to permit Finkevich to cross the border.

In the night of 13/14 May, when Artur Finkevich and his colleagues were returning to Belarus, Belarusian customs officers called all officials of the customs station as soon as they saw a passport of Finkevich at a passport check-point. As it was found out, all customs officers had been ordered to stop Finkevich, inform him officially he was temporally restricted to leave Belarus and put the restriction stamp in his passport.

Finkevich was invited to the customs station, where an officer told him he was restricted to travel abroad since 25 April 2008, and put the stamp in the passport.

‘I think this action was planned by the Belarusian secret services who listened our conversations and knew about the planned signing of an agreement and a number of important meetings in Vilnius. So, they were going to break the signing of the agreement and our scheduled meetings. I am thankful to the customs officer, who decided to let me to Lithuania, and I am sure day by day there will be more such people in all agencies,’ commented Artur Finkevich.