Animation Author's family persecuted

23.08.2005.

In addition to the criminal case brought on 16 August by Minsk Procurator's Office for libeling Aliaxandr Lukashenka, which is based on political-driven animations placed at the initiative 3dway.org, the searches in the apartments owned by the Third Way members and confiscation of computers, a KGB officer took away the passport of the wife of Alieh Minich, the animation author.
The investigator Aleh Varanietski summonsed for interrogation the Third Way member Aleh Minich for a second time. The first time he was interrogated on 16 August in Hrodna. On the same day in Minsk the KGB officers questioned Paval Marozau and Andrei Abozau. The guys had to give up all of their documents to the police. They even took away the birth certificate of Andrei Abozau.
On 22 August the Hrodna investigator, who is a member of the investigative group, interrogated not only Aleh Minich but also his wife. Halina Minich is indignant at the KGB actions. She believes that the investigator Varanietski violated the law in order to scare the family. "I am indignant at the authorities' actions, because they have started to use pressure against the family. This is outrageous. I have nothing to do with this case, but still, they are pressurizing me. They just took away my passport. And I need it today. We filed a complaint with the procurator's office. They promised they would look into it. I need to borrow books, they say: "No, you can't." I need to get some money from the bank, they say: "No, you can't."
Observers note that the investigators take away passports only from suspects or accused people. But the head of the investigative group reassured Radio Liberty that they had neither suspects nor accused people in this case. Nonetheless, none of the witnesses in the case were returned their documents by KGB officers.