Mikalai Statkevich: Authorities Going Gaga

The BNC leader has received a pack of subpoenas from various state bodies.

One of the organizers of the Outraged Belarusians’ March 2.0, Co-Chairman of the Belarusian National Congress Mikalai Statkevich received about a dozen of subpoenas and court resolutions.

According to him, he and his wife Maryna left Minsk for 10 days prior to the action, in order to avoid preventive detention. When they finally got home, there were many written notifications from the police, judicial and prosecutor’s institutions in their mailbox.

“Mostly, the paperwork contained the city court’s resolutions with regard to me,” — Mikalai Statkevich clarified in a conversation with Radio Racyja.

“Maryna appealed the resolution of the Leninski district court of Minsk after serving a 5-day detention for the September 8 action. However, the Minsk city court obviously decided that I had been duly informed, and simply did not react. It is worth mentioning that all this happened when I was serving a 15-day detention already. For those who are not aware: when you get to the Akrestsin Street detention center, they even take away your pen, let alone informing about some trial. Then, when those 15 days were expiring, they took me to the Leninski district police department an hour before the end of the term, and released from there. However, I took a taxi back to the Akrestsin Street, as I knew people were going to meet me there. I also gave an interview on the spot. Among other things, I told there was a deliberate attempt to infect me with tuberculosis. They put a man into my cell, the man stood at the entrance first, and then confessed he had tuberculosis but was not allowed to tell about it.”

According to Mikalai Statkevich, he was mostly shocked about the protocol which had been drawn up against him in the Maskouski district police department for “illegal picketing”. It turned out that the illegal picket was the interview to the independent media, which Statkevich gave on the day of his release on October 7. The protocol was forwarded to the court, the date of the trial is being clarified.

Statkevich said that his wife received many envelopes as well, but she doesn’t open them, traditionally.

"Whatever you say, in the "pre-liberalization " times there was no such thing that they tried to infect someone with tuberculosis during an administrative arrest, and then made a protocol (according to which he would again be imprisoned) for an interview about an attempted infection. Was it their revenge for the failed attempt to infect?

I have been in various prisons many times, but there was never such an abomination. By the way, not only tuberculosis, this person had other problems, of which he also confessed. In any case, I managed to quickly remove him from the cell, thank God. For the sake of justice, now I'm afraid for his life — they will somehow revenge on him because he confessed, although he was not supposed to do it. But once again I want to emphasize: for the first time such infamy is done while serving an administrative arrest. It was also the first time they are going to try someone for an interview under the walls of the Akrestsin Street prison. Yes, it happened when they took the newly-released prisoners away ahead of time, to prevent the people from meeting the prisoners, but facing a trial for a conversation with journalists is insane. I cannot regard it differently, only as a primitive revenge."

Statkevich believes that soon the prosecutor's office and the judiciary bodies will begin to be active with calls and subpoenas, following the results of the Outraged Belarusians’ March, which took place on October 21 in Minsk.