Former Political Prisoner Eduard Lobau Wanted By Police

Supposedly, a new criminal investigation has been launched against Eduard Lobau.

As Maryna Lobava, mother of the former political prisoner Eduard Lobau, said to the “Belarusian documentation center” site it is possible that they launched a new criminal investigation against him.

“Today, November 4, at 8:10 am. criminal investigation officers came to my appartment. They were looking for Eduard. They wanted to come into the apartment and search, but I didn’t let them in as they didn’t have a search warrant with them. They asked me when was the last time I saw my son and where he was at that moment. I wasn’t surprised by the visit itself as it was not the first time the police came to me. But this time I was surprised by the fact that they wanted Eduard for the crime committed under Art. 206 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (robbery), rather than Art. 421 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (non-compliance with preventive supervision) and Art. 422 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (evasion of preventive supervision). The officers failed to explain the discrepancy between the current charges and the charges that had been brought against him earlier. They said that they were given documents and they started detection. So I am not sure what it was – either a usual low level of professional training of the officers of the Ministry of Interior and ignorance of the articles of the Criminal Code, or a new criminal investigation that has been launched against my son again”,- she said.

Eduard Lobau together with Zmitser Dashkevich, the leader of the opposition movement “Young Front”, was detained in Minsk on December 18, 2010. It was a preventive measure taken by security services and the police on the eve of the presidential elections that took place the next day. A 22-year-old activist was found guilty under part 3 of Article 339 of the Criminal Code -

“especially malicious hooliganism” and was sentenced to four years in a reinforced regime colony.