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Iryna Khalip complains about police pressure to leave Belarus forever

Journalist Iryna Khalip complained to BelaPAN on Tuesday that the police were trying to force her to leave Belarus forever.

Ms. Khalip, currently 45 years of age, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence in May 2011 over a post-election street protest staged in Minsk on December 19, 2010. She was ordered to report to a probation officer every Monday and come home no later than 10 p.m.

On February 13, the probation department of the Partyzanski district police station in Minsk formally allowed her to stay in Britain and Russia until April 3.

In the interview with BelaPAN, Ms. Khalip said that she did not know when she would leave because her small son had fallen ill.

"When I came to the police station on Monday for my weekly visit, I was confronted by Alyaksandr Kupchenya, head of the probation unit of the Minsk city police department, who asked me when I was leaving," Ms. Khalip said. "When I answered that I didn't know, Kupchenya became angry. 'We have opened up the border for you!' he shouted. 'You didn't believe we'd do that, but we have, so that you go away and never come back. Listen to me, don't come back. Take your child, fly to Britain, obtain political asylum, but don't come back. You're not needed here, all you do is distort facts."

Ms. Khalip described Mr. Kupchenya's behavior as "a most blatant provocation." "An officer on duty was provoking me into breaking the law," she said. "As soon as I cross the border, they'll charge me with violating my probation requirements and make my return impossible."

According to Ms. Khalip, the incident made it clear that the apparent softening of those requirements for her was an illusion.

She said that she would write to Interior Minister Ihar Shunevich to demand an in-house probe against Mr. Kupchenya.

During an interview with Yevgeny Lebedev, a journalist for The Independent, in October 2012, Alyaksandr Lukashenka ordered that the restrictions on Ms. Khalip's freedom of movement be removed. However, when Ms. Khalip came to her district police station a few days later and asked whether she was really free to travel to Moscow, police officers told her that such a trip was out of the question.

Speaking at his lengthy news conference on January 15, 2013, Mr. Lukashenka said neither yes nor no when asked the direct question from BelaPAN's correspondent as to whether the travel ban had been lifted from Ms. Khalip and whether she would be allowed to go abroad to join her husband, former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikaw.

Instead, Mr. Lukashenka claimed that Ms. Khalip did not want to leave the country.

"If you want to carry her somewhere, go to the prosecutor general tomorrow," he said. "I have the necessary powers. You will pick up and carry her. But she won’t go."

Deputy Prosecutor General Alyaksey Stuk told BelaPAN on January 24 that nothing prevented Ms. Khalip from traveling abroad.

The suspended prison sentence against her does not include a direct prohibition from traveling abroad, he said.

Judging by her sentence, nothing prevents Ms. Khalip from foreign travel, Mr. Stuk said. She should go to her district police station and file an application, which will be considered in accordance with the established procedure, he said.