Minsk police uphold decision to expel Alena Tankachova

Thus, the Ministry of the Interior did not use the opportunity to recognize the absurdity of the situation related to the expulsion of the Belarusian human rights activist, according to eurobelarus.info.

The process of expulsion of human rights activist, leader of the Center for Legal Transformation Lawtrend Alena Tankachova is gaining momentum.

- Today I was invited to the Department of Citizenship and Migration of the Minsk city police department in order to see the case file and, in fact, be able to submit the full text of my complaint. However, when I came to the police department, I was handed a notice saying that back on December 12 it was decided to uphold the decision of the Pershamaiski district police department. Let me remind you that it contained a decision on my expulsion from Belarus and a ban on entry into the country for three years. That is, none of the arguments that have been presented in the complaint regarding the disproportionality of the decision, an incorrect assessment of the facts and so on, were taken into account.

- What actions will you take now?

- According to the law, I have the right to appeal this decision in court. I'm going to do it until the end of the current year and for the period pending trial, before the entry into force of the decision, the Belarusian authorities are obliged to extend the period of my legal residence in the Republic of Belarus.

- That is, as yet your immediate departure from Belarus is not at hand?

- The departure itself is not. But at the moment I'm just afraid to leave. I'm even afraid to go in order to begin the process of registering in the Russian Federation. The reason is simple - I have no guarantee that if I leave the territory of Belarus, I can go back. In fact, now the decision for my expulsion from Belarus has not been reviewed within the Ministry of the Interior. This happened despite the fact that Biahun (Head of the Department of Citizenship and Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Aliaksei Biahun) claimed that he established many new circumstances of my work in Belarus, and a large number of non-governmental organizations were in my support. That is, the Interior Ministry had the opportunity to get out of this rather silly and absurd situation quite clean. However, the situation shows that, on the one hand, the decision on my expulsion is political, and on the other hand, it shows that the Interior Ministry found no willpower or common sense to resolve this issue.

Alena Tankachova is a Russian national, but living in Belarus for 30 years. She has a property and a permanent job here. For 20 years, she has headed the Legal Transformation Center, which provides professional legal and expert support to non-profit organizations in Belarus, as well as in situations of human rights violations. The decision to expel the human rights defender stemmed from several facts of speeding by Alena Tankachova.