Aliaksandr Milinkevich Detained and Interrogated

On 18 February the leader of the For Freedom! movement Aliaksandr Milinkevich was detained in Minsk. As the Charter’97 press-center was told by his wife, Ina Kulei, who was near him at the moment of detention, everything happened rather quickly and unexpectedly.

‘When we were passing by the museum of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ party, some people approached us. They said they wanted to interrogate Milinkevich in a criminal case brought up after the rally on January 10. In no time at all they simply pulled him into a car. However, according to the law a person is to be summoned to an interrogation by a writ, otherwise it’s a kidnapping,’ Ina Kulei said.

She also supposed that a public activist Viachaslau Siuchyk and one of the leaders of entrepreneurs’ movement Ales Makayeu.

As said by Ina Kulei, such a harsh treatment of participants of small businessmen’s protest rallies by the regime could be explained only by the fear of the regime, as they face a growth of protest sentiments both in the society in general and among small businessmen. ‘We see that people are in a serious mood. They are ready for a serious struggle for their rights, and they are not going to give up. And today’s regime fears mass protests most of all. That is why they are acting cruelly: they arrest, beaten up, convict. But people have learnt to unit, today people can show solidarity, and their power lies in that. So no repressions will stop people,” Ina Kulei emphasized.

The detained were questioned separately in different rooms, and then released.