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“Since the morning, there has been no contact with the president of the Viasna law enforcement center, Ales Beliackis. 6 pm it turned out that he had been detained,” Viasna said in a statement on the Telegram platform.
According to the defenders, the criminal case against A. Beliackis is in charge of the central apparatus of the Commission of Inquiry. The activists explain the circumstances.
Earlier on Wednesday, Viasna reported that law enforcement officers were searching the homes of several of its employees as the regime of authoritarian President Aliaksandr Lukashenko continued to crack down on dissidents.
The authorities attacked at least five independent human rights groups, including Viasna and the Helsinki Committee of Belarus, and arrested several activists.
Viasna’s work was reportedly prosecuted in March.
“The Investigation of Organized Crime and Corruption … The Board of the Main Board of the Investigation Committee is investigating a criminal case against the Viasna Law Enforcement Center,” activists said.
Viasna stated that criminal proceedings have been initiated for organizing and actively participating in collective actions that seriously violate public order.
“Currently, there are active investigative actions: raids of the offices of our regional divisions and the apartments of the members of the organization, invitations to interrogations, other procedural actions are being carried out,” said the defenders.
“As the official comments of the Commission of Inquiry show, Viasna allegedly finances and provides other material support for illegal mass events,” the report says.
Viasna recalled that activists and volunteers from the center Maryja Rabkova, Andrei Chapiuk, Leanid Sudalenka and Taciana Lasica had previously been detained on similar charges.
Previously, the Commission of Inquiry announced that it was continuing to investigate the criminal case and that “during the preliminary investigation, the investigators initiated searches of organizations that presented themselves as defenders to determine the circumstances of the protests … financing.”
Viasna observed the mass arrests following the mass protests against Lukashenko last year.
Aleh Hulak, head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, wrote on Facebook that “the door to the group’s office is breaking down.”
Two opposition groups, a refugee rights organization and the Belarusian Journalists Association, which received an international media award last year, also reported raids on officials.
Andrei Poluda, director of the organization that fights for the abolition of the death penalty, was arrested during a search of his home.
Viasna was founded in 1996 to help the families of political prisoners.
Last week, authorities blocked the website of opposition publication Nasha Niva, the country’s oldest newspaper, and searched the offices of several regional newspapers.
The search began the day after one of Lukashenko’s main rivals, Viktor Babaryka, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Belarusian authoritarian longtime leader Lukashenko has sparked mass protests by declaring himself the winner of the elections and securing a sixth term. The opposition and the western countries consider that these elections are rigged.
Western countries have announced a series of sanctions against Lukashenko and his allies, but their impact on the regime appears to be limited, as Belarus has the support of its main ally and lender, Russia.
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