KGB searches apartment of Natallia Radzina’s parents
Local KGB officers and an
investigator from Minsk visited Natallia
Radzina’s parents at home in Kobryn. They searched the house and seized
the journalist’s notebooks, letters of solidarity from around the world,
including the ones she got from the former Czech president Vaclav Havel and the Foreign Minister
of Slovakia, Mikuláš Dzurinda.
They also seized a computer of Natallia Radzina’s minor nephew.
Then KGB officers came to her father’s work, allegedly for another questioning.
Natallia Radzina’s parents, brother and aunt have been called to questioning
during this week since Natallia left the country.
The editor of charter97.org phoned her parents today and said she was in a
refugee camp in a European country.
“Natasha promised to phone again in some days and say where she was. She said
the last formalities with granting political asylum to her were underway. She
had a cheerful voice and asked us to stand firm. If we survived the prison
together, we will be able to go through these unlawful and unscrupulous attacks
on our family. Look what a criminal they’ve found – a journalist! I was very
happy to hear her voice,” Nadzeya Radzina, the journalist’s mother, said.
Bear in mind that after spending over a month in the KGB jail, Natallia Radzina
was sent to “exile” in Kobryn under condition that she would not leave the
town. She is accused under two parts of article 293 of the Criminal Code (mass
riot). She may face up to 15 years in prison.
Natallia was to appear before a KGB investigator in Minsk for interrogation, where she could have
been presented final accusations in the case 19 December “mass riot” criminal
case. However, she decided not to wait for this to happen and left Belarus.
