All of a sudden door creaked like in fairytale

9 October, ahead of the European March, policemen burst into the apartment of oppositionist Alyaksandr Atroshchankau on the first floor through a window (!) and searched it.

The police officers said they had got an anonymous telephone call saying there was a dead body in the apartment. Nevertheless the militiamen were interested only in computers.

The office equipment, including a computer, informational materials for the European March, EU flags and plaster Belarusian national court-of-arms “Pahonia” were confiscated.

The apartment was searched for three hours. Aliaksandr Atroshchankau’s wife Darya wasn’t allowed either to enter the apartment or to pass warm clothes to Aliaksandr.

When searching, the militiamen turned the flat upside down. Sofa upholstery was cut, gas stove was broken.

Next day after search, the activist was sentenced to 10 days of arrest. The policemen, unlawfully penetrated into the apartment, gave “evidence” the detainee was allegedly “using obscene language”.

Aliaksandr Atroshchankau applied to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Central District with request to explain him how his complaint on illegal acts of police, searched his apartment ahead of the European March, is being considering.

The Prosecutor’s Office denied institution of a criminal crime against the policemen.

“Answer of the prosecutor’s office demonstrates its prejudgement and incompetency. So, the prosecutor’s office believed the words of the policemen that nobody climbed the flat through the window and the door opened of itself. Such logical controversy didn’t confuse the prosecutor. Maybe, he read too much folk fairytales, and thinks sincerely that door can open of itself. But the same file contains a court record, where police officers were saying people, who had penetrated the apartment through the window, opened them the door,” Aliaksandr Atroshchankau said in the interview to the Charter’97 press center.

The activist takes note that, according to the policemen, he didn’t show any identity documents, or document that could confirm he was renting the apartment lawfully. “Let the naive investigator believed the policemen, who said I hadn’t a renting contract, though I had it and showed it to the officers just after they penetrated the flat. But why then didn’t he pay attention to the evidence of the same witnesses that my wife, who brought my passport and copy of the contract, wasn’t allowed into the apartment? Why wasn’t the investigator confused with the fact that the policemen didn’t leave the flat, not having found a dead body or even its smell, but began to “find” informational materials, “supposedly containing call for overthrow of power,” Atroshchankau wonders.

The prosecutor’s office didn’t also react to the request of the oppositionist to appraise the verdict of the court and the violations during the process from the juridical point of view, though these violations were written in details in his complain and the materials to the case.

“Only two policemen – Kurylchuk and Sushchenya- say I was using the coarse language, but they can’t say exactly, when I began to do it – on the way to the car, or in the apartment. The rest of the witnesses, including policemen, didn’t hear me using obscene language, they didn’t say it on the questioning. Judge Pavlyuchuk, as well as the prosecutor’s office, wasn’t puzzled with such details. I was amused with service records of Kurylchuk and Sushchenya, which I learnt from the materials. They both faced disciplinary actions several times. Sushchenya was reduced to a lower rank, and Kurylchuk in 2004 was washed put from the police for acts, discrediting the honour of the organisation. But later he was called back. He is likely to do his best now,” Atroshchankau notes.

The only thing Atroshchankau gained is that he was said his belongings are in the KGB Department of Minsk and the Minsk Area. But it remains unclear, why they are situated there for already 2.5 months. “If there are no grounds for my belonging keeping there, it means, they were stolen. No measures were taken to give me my things back,” the activist said.