KGB refused to return stolen things (Photo)

Two years have passed today since the property of “European Belarus” activist Alyaksandr Atroshchankau was confiscated illegally.

The democratic activist tries to return his property, but all in vain, the website “European Belarus” reports.

On October 9, 2007, ahead of the European March rally, militiamen and people in mufti burst into the flat of opposition activist Alyaksandr Atroshchankau on the first floor through a window (!), searched it and arrested the activist.

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

Office equipment, including a laptop, a computer case, information materials about the European March, EU and Belarusian flags, and Belarusian court-of-arms Pahonya, was confiscated. Atroshchankau didn’t get a document confirming the confiscated and even a list of the confiscated things. Militiamen turned the room upside down during the three-hour search. Sofa upholstery was cut, gas stove was broken. Alyaksandr Atroshchankau’s wife wasn’t let in the flat and was forbidden to pass warm clothes to him.

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

Alyaksandr Atroshchankau managed to find out for two years that his things had been seized because they could “contain a call to overthrow the power” and are kept in the KGB Department on Minsk and the Minsk Region. The KGB has been thinking for the second year how EU flag, Pahonya court-of-arms and an empty backpack can call to overthrow the power.

Atroshchankau made complaints to the Tsentralny district militia department, the prosecutor’s office of the Tsentralny district and prosecutor’s office of Minsk, but didn’t receive an answer on what norms of the law his property had been confiscated and why it wasn’t returned.

After Atroshchankau had made a complaint to the KGB Department on Minsk and the Minsk Region in June 2008, he received a telephone call from the KGB inviting him to go and take his things, but when he came, he was arrested for 15 days for “contempt of court”. He hasn’t received an answer to this complaint so far. His last complaint he made to the prosecutor’s office late spring, hasn’t been answered too.

Darya Korsak, Alyaksandr Atroshchankau’s wife, was given a warning for her complaint against unlawful actions of militia:

“Such unfounded accusations against militia officers are not only indignant, but also illegal. In this regard, the Tsentralny district militia department gives you an official warning of responsibility in accordance with article 9.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences of Belarus,” head of the Tsentralny district militia department V. Sinyakou wrote in response to the complaint.

“In fact, I have met an organized criminal group: militia burst unlawfully into my apartment, damaged the property, steal my things and gave them to the KGB. The court throws me into a prison on absurd accusations, relying on evidence of the robbers, and the prosecutor’s office says this agrees with the law, but can’t say with which law. Calling the things by their proper names, it is an ordinary robbery, the fact that the robbers are officers of the law-enforcement bodies doesn’t change the essence,” Alyaksandr Atroshchankau said.