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Teen daughter of Babruysk opposition activist abducted, left unconscious in forest, father suspects act of intimidation from authorities

 

The 16-year-old daughter of an opposition activist resident in Babruysk, Mahilyow region, was abducted by unknown men on Saturday morning and left unconscious in a forest.

Vyachaslaw Sheleh, a member of the unregistered opposition Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD) party, told BelaPAN that he viewed the abduction as authorities’ attempt to intimidate him.

According to his daughter, Natallya, after she went out for her regular morning exercise at about 6:30 a.m., someone knocked her unconscious from behind. When she regained consciousness, she saw that she was in a forest. She found her glasses and shoes missing, her clothing torn and her face daubed with black paint.

After a long roam, she eventually reached a road near the village of Shchatkava, some 15 miles away from Babruysk. She flagged down a car and the driver gave her his mobile phone to call her parents.

According to Mr. Sheleh, he and his former wife alarmed the police at about 8 a.m. A group of police detectives arrived at approximately 11 a.m. A few minutes later, he received the phone call from Natallya, who said that she was alive and where she was. The parents rushed there in a car. No police officers followed them.

Mr. Sheleh insists that a month before, on June 28, two athletic young men with shaven heads assaulted Natallya as soon as she walked out of her mother’s apartment. They pressed her against a wall, uttering obscenities and threatening violence if she did not stay home and shut up.

Mr. Sheleh believes that those men were not common street thugs, and that what happened to his daughter was an attempt to use her to make him give up his opposition activities.

Mr. Sheleh, a small business owner, was a member of Andrey Sannikaw’s campaign team during the 2010 presidential race.

Natallya Sheleh was diagnosed with brain concussion and admitted to the Babruysk Central Hospital.

As Aksana Salyanyuk, spokesperson for the Mahilyow regional office of the Investigative Committee, told BelaPAN, criminal proceeding have been instituted in connection with the incident. // BelaPAN