Investigative Committee questioned BAJ chair Andrei Bastunets, again

On March 15 a hold on the BAJ bank account was removed. «We do not know whether it was the inves­tiga­tive com­mit­tee who had put a hold on our account. The sit­u­a­tion is com­plete­ly unclear, no one explained to us why the account had been on hold, » Bas­tunets said.

Mean­while, the deputy chair­man of BAJ, Barys Haret­s­ki, was sum­moned for ques­tion­ing at the Cen­tral Office of the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee. He will be inter­ro­gat­ed as a wit­ness in the same crim­i­nal case on March 24.
On Feb­ru­ary 16, dozens of offices and homes of human rights defend­ers, trade union activists and inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ists were searched across the coun­try. As the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee lat­er report­ed, the search­es were car­ried out as part of the inves­ti­ga­tion of the case under arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code (orga­ni­za­tion and prepa­ra­tion of actions that gross­ly vio­late pub­lic order, or active par­tic­i­pa­tion in them).

The search­es took place in the offices of BAJ, at the homes of Andrei Bas­tunets, BAJ deputy chairs Barys Haret­s­ki and Aleh Aheyeu, and lawyer Krystsi­na Rychter, in the office of the human rights cen­ter Vias­na and at the homes of its chair­man Ales Biali­ats­ki, Vias­na’s cam­paign man­ag­er Andrei Palu­da, lead­ers and activists of the inde­pen­dent trade union REP, and oth­er human rights defend­ers in many cities.

BAJ’s office was sealed, and the orga­ni­za­tion’s account was put on hold.

After the search, BAJ imme­di­ate­ly request­ed a return of the equip­ment, doc­u­ments and seal and unblock­ing the office. On March 10, Andrei Bas­tunets was ques­tioned by the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee as a wit­ness in the case under Arti­cle 342 of the Crim­i­nal Code. On March 12, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee unblocked the BAJ office, but did not return the equip­ment and doc­u­ments.