KGB Searches and Confiscates in Hrodna

12.05.2004.

According to RFE/RL, on 11 May in Hrodna KGB investigators searched three democratic organizations. They wanted to find the place where the fly-sheets with a verse which KGB found insulting for president, had been printed.

At 3 p.m. KGB officers searched the office of Belarusian Language Society, where the “Den” newspaper was being prepared. At 7.15 p.m. policemen and KGB workers carried away four system blocks that belonged to the editorial board of the “Den”. Public gathered to look at it. German journalists made photos.

The KGB investigator Fiadulaw explained to the chief editor of the newspaper Mikola Markevich that members of Belarusian Language Society had allegedly met with Valery Levanewski, head of the strike committee of businessmen, who was detained and imprisoned for distribution of the fly-sheet. On one side of the fly-sheet there was a photo of Levanewski, on the other – the verse which the KGB officers found insulting. The investigator is of the opinion that the BLS members could help Levanewski in printing the fly-sheet.

The searches were also carried out at Belarusian School Society and Lew Sapeha Foundation. They didn’t confiscate anything at BSS. At Lew Sapeha foundation they confiscated computer equipment and the book “St. Luka’s Land” in Polish translation, by Hrodna poet Ales Chobat.