Astravets: Criminal Case Brought against Collector of Signatures for Milinkevich Ivan Kruk

According to RFE/RL, Ivan Kruk is charged with violation of article 364 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus for resistance to the police during the search. He has already submitted a disproval to Astravets District Procurator’s Office concerning the reports of the policemen who conducted the search in his flat in the end of January. The search was conducted because of the suspicion that Kruk’s son stole money from a pensioner. The police found no evidence of the theft in the flat, but paid interest to Kruk’s computer and the informational bulletins of the Congress of Democratic Forces. Ivan Kruk didn’t let them to confiscate the computer – he threw him down on the floor and smashed it.

In the statement of the investigator Aliaksandr Barkouski it is said that during the confiscation of the computer Ivan Kruk purposefully tore away a shoulder-strap from a policeman’s uniform and even inflicted to him light bodily harm. Mr. Kruk disagrees with the criminal case, disproves the police testimonies and emphasizes that the search was witnessed by his relatives, neighbors and the witnesses that were brought by the police.