Reprisals carried out against businessman for support to Andrei Sannikov

After 10 days of arrest police and special services continue to search for Alyaksandr Lukin.

Charter97.org website has written about Kobryn entrepreneur Alyaksandr Lukin in the run-up to the presidential elections in the article “Belarusian businessman was on time from Paris for meeting with Sannikov”. During meetings of the presidential candidate in different region and a visit to Kobryn Alyaksandr Lukin was on business trip to France in a car and made a ride of 2,000 kilometers only to meet a person whom he wanted to see a Belarusian president.

After that meeting Alyaksandr Lukin met with Andrei Sannikov once again, on December 19 on October Square. He came there as dozens thousands of Belarusians in order to demand holding free and fair election in the country.

On the same day Alyaksandr Lukin was arrested after the peaceful rally was cracked down by riot policemen, he spent 10 days in Zhodzina remand prison. After serving the arrest the businessman left for France. Since that time special services have been trying to find him.

In January Alyaksandr’s wife Alena received a phone call from the chief of criminal investigation department. She was asked about whereabouts of Lukin. The policeman wanted him to come for conversation and did not want to answer the question – what for. In February some policeman whose surname was Shtyk called Alena Lukina. When asked which department he was representing he said that “it would be better for the family not to know about existence of such departments.” And recently Lukins’ neighbour told that a district police officer visited her recently and asked questions about the family of the businessman and his activities. He was even interested what relations the family has with neighbours and with each other. The policeman told that allegedly Brest regional executive committee had sent a document with demand to write a Lukin’s character evidence, without indicating the purpose.

After his release from Zhodizna pre-trial detention centre Alyaksandr Lukin lodged a complaint to the prosecutor’s office with an aim to bring to responsibility policemen of Kastrychnitski district police department of Minsk. He wrote: “when I demanded policemen from the police department to use polite language, they used brutal force against me. They damaged my nose, stroke me down to the ground and held handcuffed for about 15 minutes on the dirty floor in a pool of blood. Some policemen who came by simply spurned me.” During the investigation the prosecutor’s office had not find elements of crime in the actions of the policemen. Writing their story to the prosecutor’s office, policemen did not even said the right time of Alyaksandr Lukin’s arrest. They stated that the businessman was arrested between 3 and 4 a.m. In reality, even according to the decree of the court, the time of arrest was 6.40 a.m.

Now the businessman from Kobryn cannot return to his family to his native Kobryn – just because his attending the meeting with Andrei Sannikov, and later for participation in the rally on the Square to defend his vote, peacefully and in keeping with the Constitution.

Andrei Lukin and his wife Alena – to the left from Andrei Sannikov