Editor of Shklowskiya Naviny Aliaksandr Shcharbak Not Let Abroad

09.02.2005.

According to RFE/RL

The editor of the non-state newspaper Shklowskiya Naviny Aliaksandr Shcharbak was going to Poland and was very surprised at the refusal of the passport and visa service, to permit to him a short travel abroad “because of the check-up that was conducted by Shklow District Tax Inspection”. Vital Vaskowski confirmed this information and said it was the first case of the kind in his work.

The check-up concerns the period when Aliaksandr Shcharbakow worked at the private firm “Sidler and Co.” that traded wood. In 1996 he was the executive director of the firm. Then the firm owners fired him and soon the form was liquidated. The tax inspection informed Shcharbakow that the debt of the firm to the tax inspection was 8 000 Belarusian rubles (about 3 USD). This debt is the official reason why he is not let abroad.

Aliaksandr Shcharbak has no doubts concerning the real reason why he is deprived of the right to go abroad:
-- This is the continuation of the pressurization from the side of the law machinery, including Shklow KGB and prosecutor’s office. At first they fined me for distribution of some fly-sheets and now don’t let me to travel abroad. It is either an attempt to intimidate me or slowly repress me. It is pure politics.