English

Police tell rights defender Stefanovich that he may have been placed under travel ban by mistake

 

A departmental chief of the interior ministry has claimed that human rights defender Valyantsin Stefanovich may have been placed on a foreign travel ban list by mistake.

In a reply to Mr. Stefanovich’s complaint about the travel ban that he received on Wednesday, the official, Alyaksey Byahun, said that the activist may have been entered onto the list due to a “technical failure” that disrupted the transfer of electronic data between governmental agencies in the period between February 24 and March 10.

Mr. Byahun said that the defense ministry had not applied for the inclusion of Mr. Stefanovich in the list.

He, however, added that the interior ministry was conducting an inquiry to check whether any other agency may have applied for the ban on Mr. Stefanovich.

Last month, prominent legal expert Hary Pahanyayla, a member of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, received a similar reply from the justice ministry to his complaint about a travel ban of which he had been notified by police.

“I know what is behind this technical disruption, which disrupted some data transfer so selectively that only opposition politicians, independent journalists, human rights activists and lawyers ended up on the list,” Mr. Stefanovich told BelaPAN.

“Mr. Byahun did not say when their alleged inquiry would be over and when I would be removed from the travel ban list,” said Mr. Stefanovich. “I will continue to be technically under the ban until they complete the probe.