Detention of Anatol Liabedzka

On return to Minsk the UCP leader found himself almost “in a hardboiled action film”.

“People in plainclothes forcedly pushed me into a car near my home; they have torn my clothes. Seeing that, my neighbors blocked the way from the yard for them by their cars, my wife called out police,” Anatol Liabedzka said to Interfax.

“When policemen arrived, those strange people in plainclothes did not even presented themselves to the policemen, or said what authorities they represent. I agreed to go to the  Tsentralny District Police Department of Minsk only with a police tour of duty in their car,” Liabedzka stressed.

At the police department, as he said, “I was told that I allegedly cross the border illegally.” “However they know perfectly well it is impossible,” he said.

At the same time Liabedzka stated that “the KGB has not given me my passport back, the Interior Affairs Ministry does not issue a new one for me, though I had provided all the necessary documents for that.”

Earlier the leader of the United Civil party of Belarus stated that he went abroad with his old passport where he had visas.

“I was released from the police department and they said I would be summoned to appear with a call-up paper,” A. Liabedzka said.

The chairman of the UCP believes he had been detained in Minsk because of his journey to Warsaw where the Eastern Partnership summit was held.

“I see a direct interrelation there. Back in Warsaw I said to German Chancellor Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Tusk that an increase of crackdown on the part of the Belarusian authorities could be expected, as they feel great resentment as they had not been invited to Warsaw,” A. Liabedzka said on the phone to Interfax-Zapad agency.