Arrested Afghan war veteran Kanstantsin Ulanau kept in Akrestsin Street prison

The wife of the detained states that her husband was arrested on farfetched charges.

The Afghan war veteran, a retired ensign, a gunman, Kanstantsin Ulanau was detained on June 7 by officers of the Chief directorate on organized crime combat of the Interior Ministry of Belarus (GUBOP). During detention officers said that that he is suspected in being implicated in preparation of blasts together with Mikalai Autukhovich.

Kanstantsin Ulanau’s wife Tatsyana told the website www.charter97.org about the detention of the Afghan war veteran:

“At 8.45 a.m. there was a call in the door,” the wife of the arrested Afghan war veteran said. “They said that they are policemen, and demanded us to open the door insistently. My husband opened. They demonstrated search warrant and said that he was suspected of being accomplice of Autukhovich. However, they found nothing in the search, neither gun nor cartridges. Then they took my husband away. They seized a sporting gun, though there was a permission and hunter’s certificate for it.”

As said by the woman, Kanstantsin Ulanau was taken to their summer cottage (dacha).

“He was taken to our dacha in Dokshytsy district Vitsebsk region,” the wife of the arrested Afghan war veteran said. “They probably searched it too. They told that my husband would return soon. However he wasn’t back in the evening”.

As said by Tatsyana Ulanava (Ulanova), the last three months her husband lived in the summer cottage. The retired military man planned to repair the house and start a private farm there.

“He visited Minsk seldom He came only for receiving pension. On weekends we were doing repair works. Husband started to change windows there. He planned to breed rabbits there sometime. I do not know what they wanted to find in our summer house. I visit it often, and know everything there, there couldn’t be anything illegal”.

After her husband didn’t return on June 7, Tatsyana Ulanava came to the Chief directorate on organized crime control.

“Nobody called me and explained where my husband was,” Tatsyana Ulanava said. “He didn’t call either, though he has a right for one phone call under the law. Major Sakalou came down to me. He said my husband was detained for three days as a suspect in implication in Autukhovich’s case. Besides, I was said that husband was in the remand prison in Akrestsin Street”.

Today Tatsyana Ulanava is perplexed why her husband has been detained.

“My husband is a very calm, self-possessed, honest and decent person,” she says. “He is a person who sticks to his word, who had never stolen anything. He spent 2 years in Afghanistan. He has several war decorations, “For courage” among them”.

Kanstantsin Ulanau was among those many Afghan war veterans who refused t accept jubilee decorations from Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

“This year he was offered a jubilee medal, but he refused,” Tatsyana Ulanava said. “He believes that that he hadn’t deserve that medal. My husband said that a medal is given for some merits, and that decoration is given for an unknown reason. Besides, he didn’t want to receive a medal from this regime”.

In 2005 he was on hunger strike with Mikalai Autukhovich protesting against destruction of his business. Tatsyana recalls how her husband met Autukhovich.

“He met with Autukhovich when he read about his hunger strike in a newspaper,” Tatsyana Ulanava said. My husband went to Vaukavysk and was on hunger strike for 10 days. After that their ways never crossed. Maybe, they talked on the phone seldom. Then Kanstantsin supported Autukhovich, and it was right to do so. Before going to Vaukavysk he asked my advice. I said Afghan war veterans should support each other. In any normal society such support is considered a decent move. And in our country it is punishable”.

Leaders of entrepreneurs from Vaukavysk Mikalai Autukhovich, Yury Lyavonau, and Uladzimir Asipenka were detained on February 8. They were charged under article 218 of the Criminal Code (intentional damage to or destruction of property of citizens).

It became known on June 23 that Autukhovich is suspected of committing a crime under part 3 of article 29 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (illegal dealing with arms and ammunition).

Autukhovich is on hunger strike of protest for 84 days. He demands to send his case to court or change the measure of restraint for all suspected from custody to release on own recognizance.

Human rights activists consider the detainees to be political prisoners drawing attention to the fact that Autukhovich and Lyavonau were convicted before and recognized prisoners of conscience by the international community.