Babruisk KGB looking for foreign sponsors of elections

On 2 March Yury Hryniavetski, Chairperson of the Babruisk organization of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party Hramada, paid a visit to the local KGB department to which he was invited as a ‘person who knows about circumstances that are important for ensuring the national security’.

Earlier the KGB officers tried to summon Mr. Hryniavetski by phone and issued him with an official writ only after he refused to come to them without receiving such document. At the KGB department, Yu. Hryniavetski was questioned for three hours by KGB officer Aliaksandr Kharashkevich who specializes in the Babruisk oppositionists.

’At the weekend I participated in a social-democratic conference in Druskininkei (a town in south Lithuania),’ says Yury Hryniavetski. ‘They were mostly interested to find why I went to Lithuania, who I talked with and how much money I received for the elections. I think, their main aim was to find out to which extent the foreign states support democrats at these elections.’

During the conversation the KGB officer was writing all the time. He explained that it was a ‘questioning’ and threatened to fine the activist if he refused to answer the questions. However, Mr. Hryniavetski believes that the officer composed a protocol of the conversation, and therefore the activist refused to sign it.

It is quite interesting that after Yury Hryniavetski went out of the KGB office, Aliaksandr Kharashkevich came up with him and asked to give him the writ, as it was ostensibly necessary for his work.

Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections