‘They Beat And Strangled Me’: Anarchist Frantskevich Tells About Deportation From Ukraine

Former Belarusian political prisoner told why he was deported from Ukraine and how it happened.

On the night of June 19, in Kyiv, the SBU (security service of Ukraine) detained citizen of Belarus, former political prisoner, anarchist Aliaksandr Frantskevich. He was deported to Belarus the next morning.

The correspondent of Radio Svaboda met Frantskevich at the Minsk railway station, where he arrived from Homel.

“For the activity contrary to the interests of protection the national security of Ukraine”

Frantskevich informed that at 5 p.m. on June 18 he came to the office of the Central Migration Service for a certificate of extension of the residence permit for one year:

“An employee of the archive handed a document, I signed it, and they detained me at the exit. They said they were the SBU, but did not call names. They showed me the document - “The decision on the forced deportation”, according to which I was expelled from Ukraine for 3 years because my activity was supposedly “contrary to the interests of protecting the national security of Ukraine”.

According to Frantskevich, they shoved him into a car and delivered to the Belarusian border.

“On the way, they beat me at least three times: for resisting, not wanting to go with them, for the refusal to unblock the phone. They took this phone from me at the border and did not return. At night they brought me to the Belarusian border, not far from the place where three countries meet, took off the handcuffs, gave back my passport and told me to go walking to Belarus,” says Frantskevich says.

The Belarusian border guards checked his passport and allowed to enter the country, and the police gave him a ride to the railway station.

“They beat me seriously, applied strangulation techniques”

Aliaksandr Frantskevich only had with him a small purse on the belt, containing the passport, the decision on deportation and $ 50.

“I somehow foresaw what was coming, so I took it with me. I would have been absolutely without money,” Aliaksandr shrugs his shoulders.

He says that the SBU of Ukraine broke the law by having forcibly and quickly taken him to the border.

“The thing is, I told them that I was going to apply for asylum as a refugee. In this case, they were obliged to take me to the police station, where I would write the appropriate application; they should have seized my passport, give me a certificate, and my further fate should have been decided by court. This was not how it happened, my protests were responded with their fists. They beat me seriously, applying even strangulation techniques. In short, just like riot police.”

Aliaksandr does not exclude there was a tip, that he was expelled by a request of the Belarusian secret services.

“I have received threats via Telegram, that they will soon bring me back to the motherland. At the same time, the SBU said that I was connected with Ukrainian anarchists, I gave someone refuge for a night. I mean, is this some crime to shelter somebody for a night? However, the exact cause is unknown to me, I believe that this expel is inadequate to my behaviour. Yes, I remained an anarchist by my convictions, but I was not involved in any illicit affairs. I did not participate in the fighting in the Donbas either,” says Aliaksandr Frantskevich.

“I will address to the European Court of Human Rights”

Former Belarusian political prisoner said he would try to challenge his deportation in the European Court of Human Rights.

“The fact that Belarus is not a member of the Council of Europe does not matter in my case, as Ukraine is the litigant, it signed all the relevant documents and should respond for such lawlessness,” Frantskevich said.

At the same time Aliaksandr Frantskevich does not think that he was under deportation in connection with the internal policy of the new president of Ukraine Zelenskiy.

Aliaksandr does not know yet what he will do in Belarus.

“I am a programmer, my work is connected with computers, but if but if they carry out endless searches and seize the equipment, as it has been here before, it will be impossible to work under such conditions. Therefore, I do not know where to find myself in the end. So far, I am going to my mother’s place in Navapolatsk,” said Aliaksandr Frantskevich.

The former political prisoner safely took a bus from Minsk to Navapolatsk. The police did not come up to him at the Minsk railway station.