Valery Fralow Is Beaten

02.07.2004.

At 11.30 p.m. Valery Fralow and his driver were beaten in the porch the house where Fralow’s duty flat is situated. When Fralow and his driver entered the porch, five unknown persons in black masks burst on them. They hit them in the face, ribs and kidneys. The driver got a tooth plucked out. The unknown persons took away Fralow’s bag with documents and books, valet and passport.

“At the police I was asked whether there were any threats to me. I answered that a year ago Aliaksandr Lukashenka said that there won’t be any place for me in Belarus and I would be chopped like a cabbage. I think that these threats start to be executed. However, we are not surprised as we are being watched ad bugged all the time”.

According to Fralow and the head of the deputy group “Respublika” Siarhey Skrabets with whom the general flew to Moscow on 1 July, in Moscow they were watched by four persons in plain clothes with a video camera. Two days before the beating Valery Fralow was warned about it and advised to hire guards. However, he had too little time for it.

Minsk Leninski Borough Prosecutor’s Office brought a case on this fact, on part 2 of Article 205 – robbery.

The police are of the opinion that the assault that took place on 1 July couldn’t be considered as related to robbery and that the gangsters wanted just to scare the deputy and take away his belongings. Now the police are on the stage of preliminary investigation. The acting head of the preliminary investigation department Ihar Pawliuchenka refused to comment on the case.

According to the head of the housing service No. 4 Aliaksandr Lazarevich, the house in Kazarmenny bystreet 4 in Minsk was not guarded, but the magnet locks in the porches were in operative condition. Nobody knows how the criminals managed to get into the porch.

At the same time, the Chamber of Representatives of the Parliament knows nothing of the assault and is not going to report on it.

According to RFE/RL.

Information Department of HRC “Viasna”