Financial Investigations Department refuses to unblock “ARCHE” accounts

The Belarusian Association of Journalists’ motion for unfreezing the accounts of the “ARCHE” magazine was not satisfied.

According to the press-secretary of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Barys Haretski, the organization received a response to the written motion for unfreezing the banking account of the magazine’s editorial office. “The deputy head of the FID’s section for Minsk and Minsk region A.S. Lahunau writes, that his office “asked for financial and economic activities of the entity “Arche magazine’s Editorial Office” … with the terms of submission 02.10.2012 until 10 a.m.” and “the requested documents were not submitted by the time stated”. That is why the FID made a decision to freeze the account”, - Haretski told BelaPAN.

“As long as the papers have not been fully submitted so far, there are no grounds for cancellation of the decision for the department”, Haretski added.

This FID’s position, according to Haretski, causes bewilderment of the Association of Journalists since, according to the statement by the acting “Arche” editor, all the requested documents were submitted. “The officials of the magazine have even filed two complaints against the investigators demanding to unfreeze the accounts, but without a result so far”, pointed Haretski.