Milinkevich Faces Ban for Leaving Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

The leader of the democratic forces Alyaksandr Milinkevich is obliged to pay a fine of 4 million 650 thousand BYR. He was fined by the court of Kastrychnitski district of Minsk, allegedly for “intentional illegal crossing the state border”. Today Alyaksandr Milinkevich has received a copy of the decree of the court and a warning that he is obliged to pay the fine before February 10, otherwise Milinkevich faces a ban for leaving Belarus.

On January 25 the court of Kastrychnitski district of Minsk fined the leader of the united democratic forces of Belarus Alyaksandr Milinkevich 150 basic units (4 mln 650 thousand rubles, or $2,173) for intentional illegal crossing the state border. The trial was held in Milinkevich’s absence. Milinkevich is on a business trip to Vilnius. He had a meeting with Lithuanian Foreign Minister.

On November 26-29 the leader of the democratic forces took part in the NATO summit in Riga on invitation of Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga. On his departure from Minsk, border guards stamped his son’s passport by mistake. His name is Alyaksandr Milinkevich too. It was noticed only when the politician returned back. Border guards haven’t recognized their mistake. They accused Alyaksandr Milinkevich of intentional crossing the border with invalid documents.

The politician is going to challenge the ruling of the regional court.

“It is a serious misconduct in office not to notice that it was not my passport. It is obvious, and the fact of the border guard is written down in the decree of the court. There is no doubt who is to blame, and who is to incur liability. Nobody is going to execute the politically motivated ruling of the court. I believe that at the moment the regime is using the court trial for limiting by activities,” Alyaksandr Milinkevich said.