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KGB, police raid dozen homes over mass riot case

Officers of the Committee for State Security (KGB) and police raided the apartments of at least 12 people in Minsk and other cities on Saturday in connection with the mass riot case opened following the opposition’s street protest in Minsk on December 19.

KGB staff raided the apartments of jailed ex-presidential candidates Andrey Sannikaw and Alyaksey Mikhalevich; human rights defenders Vyachaslaw Siwchyk and Aleh Volchak; screenwriter Uladzimir Khalip; Mr. Sannikaw’s campaign aide, Dzmitry Bandarenka, and spokesman, Alyaksandr Atroshchankaw; journalist Natallya Radzina and Alyaksandr Arastovich, a member of former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich’s team.

Most of the people are currently held in the detention center of the Committee for State Security.

Searches also were conducted at the homes of human rights defender Alyaksey Kaputski in Maladzyechna, Minsk region, and opposition activist Pavel Batuyew in Salihorsk, Minsk region.

The United Civic Party said that its office in Minsk was being raided on Saturday afternoon.

Computers and electronic data storage devices were seized by the KGB and police as a result of most of the raids.

Aleh Hulak, leader of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, described the raids targeting outspoken critics of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s government as “law enforcement agencies’ psychosis.”

It would be logical if the authorities tried to scale down its crackdown on opponents after the brutal dispersal of the street protest and the jailing of hundreds of people, he said. “Unfortunately, we are not seeing this, we are only seeing the aggravation of the conflict,” he said.

Mr. Hulak noted that the authorities were unlikely to end its crackdown.

Mr. Khalip, father of jailed journalist Iryna Khalip and father-in-law of Mr. Sannikaw, suggested that the authorities were seeking to destroy the entire opposition. “Pro-democratic activists will face various methods of violence: arrests, intimidation, as well as attempts at breaking people physically, psychologically and morally. The purpose of the authorities is to leave only decorative rather than democratic non-governmental organizations,” Mr. Khalip said. //BelaPAN