Vitsebsk candidate Alena Famina searched twice at Belarusian-Polish border
Alena Famina, a candidate for the Parliament at
Vitsebsk-Horki election constituency #17, faced an unpleasant situation on her
return from Warsaw where she visited her son. At first the Belarusian custom's
officers examined her belongings right I the carriage, then set her down the
train and conducted a personal examination, proposing her to voluntary declare
some money.
Alena Famina said that the customs officers examined not only her bag, but the
whole carriage in which she was traveling: “At first they took my passport and
then asked to show my belongings. I didn't protest as I didn't thing there
could be any problems. Then a custom officer brought there some official who
stated that he set me down the train for examining my belongings. I was led out
and the customs officer checked whether I hadn't left anything in my bed. At
the hall of the custom's office my bag was searched once again. They kept
asking whether I didn't want to declare any money. I had 250 US dollars and 140
Belarusian rubles with me, but the customs officers were looking for some
other, most probably, quite huge money!”
The customs officers asked why Alena Famina had visited Poland and why he often went to Lithuania.
According to her, they evidently implemented somebody's order:
“Their boss was always consulting somebody on the phone what to do with me, as
they hadn't found anything! They only found the paper confirming that I was a
candidate for the Parliament. Most probably, this provoked the following events
– the custom's officers went away to get a warrant for personal examination. To
put it short, I haven't experienced such humiliation ever in my life!”
Nothing was confiscated as a result of the personal examination and the search.
However, the woman had to run not to be late for the train. The papers which
Alena Famina received from the border guards have no information about the
reason for the personal examination and the search
The candidate considers it as pressurization for her political activities.
Several days ago officers of the Pershamaiski District Police Department of
Vitsebsk confiscated from her a file with electoral documents and a notebook
with telephones and addresses without any reasons.
“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”
