Dzmitry Bandarenka: Justice Will Surely Prevail

Who is guilty of causing huge economic damage to Belarus?

Coordinator of the European Belarus Civil Campaign Dzmitry Bandarenka commented on the confiscation of his wife's apartment in Minsk.

"Quite recently, my friends living in Lithuania told me that the Belarusian propaganda channel ONT showed a story about how enforcers of the Belarusian KGB allegedly broke into my apartment in Minsk, searched it and seized the apartment and all the property there. The information, of course, did not please, but it was surprising that all these illegal actions, according to the ONT TV host, were committed to compensate for the damage caused to the Republic of Belarus by the economic sanctions of the West, which were allegedly introduced because of my calls to this very West.

In this regard, I would like to inform the employees of the KGB and the Belarusian Prosecutor's Office conducting this case, as well as the general public, of the following:

1. Economic sanctions against Belarus were imposed due to the participation of the current regime in the aggressive war against Ukraine, due to the illegal landing of a European aircraft with EU citizens at the Minsk airport to conduct an information and military show with the participation of the notorious Raman Pratasevich, as well as due to hybrid border attacks organized by the authorities of Belarus against the neighboring states of Belarus: Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

2. I admit that gave interviews to independent Belarusian and international media and called for the introduction of economic sanctions by the democratic countries of the European Union, the United States and Canada in order to end the mass repression in the Republic of Belarus and immediately release all Belarusian citizens behind bars who were imprisoned for defending their constitutional rights. I explain my actions by the fact that the release of political prisoners of Belarus and the temporary cessation of repression have always been carried out under the pressure of economic sanctions of democratic countries of the world, which demanded these. I know this from my own experience and from the experience of other illegally repressed people. Unfortunately, my calls for the imposition of sanctions demanding the release of all Belarusian political prisoners by the "collective West" were not heard and people continue to languish in prisons and penal colonies.

3. Therefore, the main culprit of causing huge economic damage to Belarus due to the introduction of economic sanctions by Western countries is citizen A.H. Lukashenka, whose place of residence I do not know.

4. The owner of the illegally arrested apartment since its privatization is my wife Volha, who is a pensioner of the Republic of Belarus and has no other housing. I am not even a co-owner of this apartment and over the past 12 years I have not even appeared there. My wife regularly pays for all utilities at regular rates. But under the so-called "decree on parasites", utility bills, if I were a co-owner of the apartment, would have to be paid at "draconian" increased tariffs. That is, officials and security officials are well aware that I am not a co-owner of this apartment.

5. Due to the fact that I cannot come to Belarus due to the threat of arrest and knowing from the ONT story that my interviews and comments to the independent media are regularly viewed by employees of the KGB, other law enforcement agencies, propagandists and officials of the current government, I want to warn this category of citizens of the Republic of Belarus about criminal liability for illegal actions.

Justice will surely prevail."