Criminal Action Brought Up Against Ina Kulej’s Son :: Charter'97 :: News

A criminal action has been brought up against Ihar Kulej, the son of the wife of the democratic forces leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich, Ina Kulej. He is charged with draft evasion. Yesterday the Belarusian TV informed that Ihar Kulej allegedly provided “false medical certificate” to Brest military enlistment office. “It’s absolute nonsense. Ihar is a forth year student of the international affairs faculty of Olsztyn University (Poland). He had not been sending any documents or medical certificated to a military enlistment office, and nobody asked us to provide them. Every year, as all students, we were sending documents from Olsztyn University to the military enlistment office. There haven’t been any complaints ever,” Ina Kulej commented the reports to the Charer’97.

Alyaksandr Milinkevich’s wife told that in April, when Ihar arrived to Brest for Easter, a district police officer called him. He told that Ihar was to arrive to the military enlistment office, as he had signed a call-up paper. “Ihar hadn’t signed any call-up papers. Ihar asked the inspector when he could sign a call-up paper? The inspector told that is was on April 5, though on that day Ihar was serving 15 days of arrest in Zhodzina remand prison for participation in Freedom Day rally,” Ina Kulej said.

As said by Ina Kulej, after that occasion Ihar was left in peace. Nobody from prosecutor’s office or military enlistment office called him after that. But last week a man called to Milinkevich’s wife and presented himself as a worker of Brest city prosecutor’s office Varenich. He invited her to come to the prosecutor’s office as a witness in a criminal case. Ina Kulej refused to come to interrogation without an official writ. The prosecutor’s office worker hadn’t told in which case she should witness.

“Only yesterday I heard in the news of the Belarusian TV that a criminal case has been brought up against my son. It is the most painful thing when your children are affected. The same was with Mikhail Chyhir’s son (former prime minister of Belarus), the same things happened to children of other oppositionists. They think that parents can be prevented from political activities by crackdown on their children. It’s a mean form of intimidation, it’s simply blackmailing,” Ina Kulej said.