Political Prisoner Ivan Kruk Released :: Charter'97 :: News

A member of the United Civil Party, a political prisoner Ivan Kruk, who has spent half a year in Hlubokae detention home, has been released today. The leader of the democratic forces Alyaksandr Milinkevich has arrived to meet the prisoner to Hlubokae. However, the administration of the corrective facility has done everything possible for the political prisoner not to be met by friends and associates.

Ivan Kruk was to be released at 10 a.m. Two dozens of his friends were standing near the entrance of Hlubokae detention home waiting for Ivan. The director of the detention home confirmed that Ivan Kruk was released ahead of the announced time.

In the noon Ivan Kruk was in his home town Astravets. He told that actually he was forcibly taken from the detention home two hours earlier.

“I asked the administration yesterday to release me at a set time. Today they entered my cell at 7 a.m. they told me to collect my things and go. At half past seven I was put into a car forcibly and taken to a railway station. They wanted to make me sit in a Minsk bus by force too. I told that I need an opposite direction. I asked to let me stay in Hlubokae at the crossroads of Minsk and Vilnius roads. They called their commanders, and agreed. I stood there for half an hour. Then they pushed me into the car again and took me to the crossroads in Pastavy, 50 kilometres from that place. I was standing there for an hour. An acquaintance of mine gave me a drive. And now I am at home”.

As we have informed, last year during the presidential campaign Ivan Kruk, an activist from Astravets, was charged with disobedience to police. He has spent six months in detention home in Hlubokae.