Polish minority activists’ apartments searched

November 14, BPN. The Union of Poles in Belarus says police are searching the apartments of its general council’s chairwoman Irenа Waluś and deputy chairwoman Renata Dziemiańczuk.

“The leading activists are not answering the phones!” a spokesman for the union said on Facebook.

On November 14, reports came in that prosecutors in the Hrodna region asked an economic court to shut down the Klerigata firm, which they said “has been virtually functioning as an unregistered union of Poles in Belarus.”

“In violation of the law, in addition to the activities provided for by its charter, the business entity pursued the goals and objectives of a public association that was not legally registered in Belarus,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

A criminal case was filed against the firm’s executives for illegally organizing the public association’s activities.

Belarusian authorities have an appalling record of intimidating Polish minority activists. During social unrest that followed the disputed presidential election in 2020, police arrested five members of the Union of Poles in Belarus, including its head Andżelika Borys (Anžalika Borys) and journalist Andrzej Poczobut (Andrej Pačobut). They were charged with incitement to hatred and calls for sanctions or shocks on the Belarusian state. Poczobut remains in custody.