Wife confirms reports that deputy chief editor of Narodnaya Volya applied for political asylum in Belgium :: Charter'97 :: News

The wife of Belarusian journalist Aleksandr Silich has confirmed the reports that her husband applied for political asylum in Belgium, noting that his life was in danger in Belarus. The Khartiya-97 web site reported earlier this week that the deputy editor-in-chief of the Narodnaya Volya newspaper had arrived in the European country to seek political asylum.

Alla Silich noted that the family’s phones have been tapped and apartment staked out for the last two years after the reporter asked Aleksandr Lukashenko at a news conference about the existence of an off-budgetary presidential fund replenished with proceeds from unlawful arms trade. “Some unfamiliar people used to phone us without identifying themselves and there was silence if I picked up the phone,” the woman said in an interview with the Belarusian service of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

“Things took a turn for the worse before and after the referendum,” she noted. “You know, when the husband was not picking up his cellphone for an hour or two, I grew scared. There was a premonition of danger…And I’m still afraid for myself and my son: our phone lines are wiretapped and I believe our apartment is bugged,” Mrs. Silich said.
The woman noted that he husband would feel safer in Belgium.